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BERLIN (Reuters) - German business morale improved only slightly in April as a third wave of COVID-19 infections and a semiconductor shortage in the motor vehicle sector slowed a recovery in Europe s largest economy, a survey showed on Monday.
The Ifo institute said its business climate index edged up to 96.8 from 96.6 in March. A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a bigger increase to 97.8. Both the third wave of infections and bottlenecks in intermediate products are impeding Germany s economic recovery, Ifo President Clemens Fuest said in a statement.
Germany is struggling to contain an aggressive third wave of COVID-19 as efforts have been complicated by the more contagious B117 variant, first discovered in Britain, and a relatively slow introduction of vaccines against the pandemic.
By Olivia Bugault Roche Holding AG said Wednesday that sales slightly decreased in its first quarter, while it confirmed its outlook for the year. The Swiss pharmaceutical major posted sales of 14.93 billion Swiss francs ($16.30 billion), down from CHF15.14 billion a year earlier. At constant exchange rate, sales increased 3%, it said. An analysts consensus provided by FactSet had sales at CHF15.01 billion. Sales at its pharmaceuticals division its largest business fell to CHF10.6 billion from CHF12.26 billion, while it rose 55% at constant exchange rate at its diagnostic division, it said. The decline in sales at its pharmaceuticals business is mainly because of the coronavirus pandemic and the competition of biosimilars, Roche said. The impact of biosimilars on sales of the established cancer medicines MabThera/Rituxan, Avastin and Herceptin remained significant (combined sales reduction of CHF1.6 billion), especially in the U.S., it said.