A majority of German chemical companies, which employ 437,000 people in the country, expect sales and profit to increase this year, Handelsblatt reported, citing a poll of 300 managers by Camelot.

More than half of those managers forecast that sales will rise more than 5 percent, compared with 9 percent who expect a “moderate” decline, the newspaper said. Seventy percent predicted a rise in net income and 20 percent said they expect profit to fall as much as 5 percent, Handelsblatt reported.

To contact the reporter on this story: Niklas Magnusson in Hamburg at nmagnusson1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Angela Cullen at acullen8@bloomberg.net