The recently extraordinarily high level of inflation shaped the sales development of German retailers in March. This is the result of preliminary figures published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Monday.
Accordingly, the total revenues of the industry were nominally 3.1 percent above the level of the same month last year. In real terms, i.e. adjusted for the effects of price developments, they fell by 2.7 percent. Compared to the previous month of February, sales increased nominally by 2.1 percent, in real terms they fell by 0.1 percent. “The difference between the nominal and real results reflects the high price increases in retail,” explained the Wiesbaden authority in a statement.
In trade in textiles, clothing, shoes and leather goods, real revenues fell by 8.4 percent compared to February, but compared to March 2021, which was significantly influenced by the lockdown measures at the time, sales in this category increased 39.0 percent. Overall, non-food sales in March were 2.6 percent below the level of the previous month in real terms. Internet and mail order business suffered a minus of 7.7 percent. Compared to the same month of the previous year, revenues in this trading segment even fell by 16.9 percent.
However, the German retail trade was able to record an increase in sales throughout the first quarter of 2022: nominal sales were 7.6 percent above the corresponding level of the previous year, in real terms they rose by 3.0 percent. Sales of textiles, clothing, shoes and leather goods more than doubled (nominal +118.2 percent, real +118.4 percent).