According to an initial official estimate, German retailers significantly increased their sales last year.
Revenues rose by a nominal 2.7 percent compared to the previous year, as forecast by the Federal Statistical Office. Adjusted for price effects (real), business is expected to have grown by 1.3 percent. The growth comes from the second half of the year alone, because until then the real sales development was still declining with a minus of 0.4 percent.
In the previous two years, 2022 and 2023, high price increases prevented customers from making additional purchases. However, the record level of 2021 was not reached in the more consumer-friendly year 2024. Real annual sales are expected to be 2.7 percent lower than in 2021, the Federal Office reported. The pre-crisis year 2019, however, will be exceeded by 2.6 percent.
The office presented preliminary figures for November, from which the annual result was extrapolated. The statisticians registered nominal sales increases of 3.5 percent in the month compared to the same period last year. After deducting price, calendar and seasonal effects, the real increase remains at 2.5 percent. Internet and mail order sales performed particularly strongly in the month, with real sales growth of 9.7 percent.
HDE is critical of the Federal Office’s estimate
The German Trade Association (HDE) gave a much more pessimistic forecast at the end of the year. The industry recently expected only a nominal increase of 1.3 percent to 657 billion euros in 2024, which, adjusted for prices, means zero growth.
Managing director Stefan Genth is therefore critical of the Federal Office’s estimate: it is not based on the companies’ sales reports for December. In addition, the significant increases in online trading were at least partly due to restructuring at a very large mail order company. The association wants to present its own figures at the end of January. (dpa)