The Germans, as much as the Japanese, find it difficult to admit, even to themselves, just how bad a state their economy is in, so that Siemens AG’s announcement yesterday that it expects profits to fall by up to 15% this fiscal year – to September came as a cold douche. The profits warning was accompanied by the bad news that another 10,000 jobs are to go this year, on top of the 16,000 that went last year. The company says sales are stagnating and it is faced with sharp falls in prices in many of its business areas as German companies trim prices in order to win any sales at all. Group pre-tax profits for the year to September were down 10% at the equivalent of $1,680m, with financial – non-operating – profits now accounting for two thirds.