Germany’s retailers started the current year with weaker business. Sales in January fell by 0.4 percent, adjusted for prices (real) and including price increases (nominal), compared to the previous month of December, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday in Wiesbaden. Within one year, real revenues fell by 1.4 percent. Including price increases, retailers had a total of 1.6 percent more in their cash register.
In January, food retail sales were 0.5 percent less in real terms than a year earlier. The non-food retail sector recorded a more significant decline of 2.1 percent. Internet and mail order sales, which had boomed during the corona pandemic, recorded a decline of 2.8 percent. (dpa)