In view of the dramatic increase in energy costs and poor consumer sentiment, the retail sector in Germany is expecting inflation-adjusted sales to shrink this year. “Rising inflation is massively reducing the purchasing power of customers,” said HDE general manager Stefan Genth on Tuesday in Berlin.
Due to the high inflation, retail sales would increase nominally by 3 percent to 607 billion euros this year, the HDE predicted. In real terms – i.e. adjusted for inflation – this means a drop in sales of two percent.
The lion’s share of growth this year is likely to be attributable to online trading, which according to the HDE forecast could increase its sales by 12.4 percent to a good 97 billion euros. Stationary trade should therefore increase by 1.4 percent to almost 510 billion euros and thus again lose market share to online trade.
According to a current HDE survey of 800 companies, almost half of the retailers (45 percent) expect the business situation to deteriorate in the second half of the year compared to the second half of 2021, which was still heavily influenced by Corona. (dpa)