As reported by the german trade association Spectaris, the majority of the German medical technology manufacturers do not expect a great reduction of sales to the end of the year. The association expects an increase in sales in the industry in this year of 5 percent to 18.2 billion Euro. A growth of 2 to 3 percent is forecast by Spectaris for the coming year. A lightning poll by the association of the medical technology manufacturers has shown that 85 percent of the companies polled do not expect massive effects from the financial crisis on their business in the current year. However, the feelings for the coming year are a bit more damped. Yet almost two thirds of the companies do not expect a grave decline in sales for 2009.

Also the number of employees in the medical technology companies is expected to rise further according to estimates – by approximately 4.6 percent to more than 99,000 in the current year. Further, for 2009, 72 percent of the companies asked expect that the growth in employment will continue to grow. Foreign sales by the manufacturers will probably weaken somewhat according to the forecasts. A reason for this is a noticeable decline in demand from the USA which accounts for around 21 percent of the overall German exports of medical technology. Also exports to Japan and Eastern Europe are expected to fall slightly. However, as the exchange rate of the Dollar has changed in favour of the German companies, these declines can be held within limits.