Largest Danish export plunge in over 40 years

Last year was the year with the largest export plunge in over 40 years – another aspect of the crisis year 2009.
The export of goods fell by as much as 16.2 per cent, which means that the businesses missed out on a sale of DKK 95 billion in the export markets. And this does not bode well, chief analyst Christian Hilligsøe Heinig, Sydbank, said.
»This is the largest decline in the export of goods which has been recorded since the last half of the 1960s, and this is probably also the strongest fall at all in the post-war period,« he said.
He added that the Danish export businesses will be under pressure when the recovery begins.
»Considering Friday’s dismal figures for the industrial production we are increasingly worried that the considerable weakening of the Danish competitiveness is an important obstacle for the current economic development, Christian Hilligsøe Heinig said.
Only pharmaceuticals were relatively unaffected by the slowdown with a modest decline of 0.9 per cent in 2009.

It is beyond all doubt that Denmark is lagging behind foreign countries. Other countries now feel an emerging optimism, while things are more slack in Denmark.

In the short term there should be growth possibilities, Jyske Bank said. But in the longer term the situation is more uncertain.
»The pay competition could cost considerable market shares in the coming years, when the consumers all over the world will without doubt have a greater focus on prices than before,« senior economist Niels Rønholt, Jyske Bank, said.