Wholesalers in Germany worked their way out of the Corona crisis last year with record sales. Revenue rose by 10.3 percent compared to the previous year, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office on Tuesday. Adjusted for price, it would have been 2.5 percent. The reasons for the record course were catch-up effects at the beginning of the year compared to the lockdown period in 2020 and the significant price increases at the wholesale level in the further course of the year.
“Wholesale is looking ahead again,” said Dirk Jandura, President of the BGA industry association. However, the economy is not out of the woods yet. especially the Ukraine conflict.
The BGA assumes that the price pressure in wholesale will ease in the second half of the year as a result of rising purchase prices. Last year, wholesale prices rose at their fastest rate in almost 50 years. According to the Federal Office, a higher increase than the 9.8 percent calculated as an annual average within a year was last seen in 1974 during the first oil crisis with plus 12.9 percent.
Above all, the high demand for raw materials and intermediate products in view of the global economic recovery after the Corona crisis fueled prices. According to the latest information from the Wiesbaden authority, petroleum products (32 percent) and ores and metals (44.3 percent) have become much more expensive. (dpa)