Image: (APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)
The strongest real decline of 11.5 percent occurred in the furniture, home improvement and electrical goods trade, according to preliminary results from Statistics Austria. The Christmas business was also 3.9 percent below the previous year after adjusting for prices. “Inflation is consuming growth in retail,” said Statistics Austria General Director Tobias Thomas on Tuesday, according to a broadcast.
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High losses also in mail order and online trading
In the food retail sector in particular, there is a big difference between nominal and real sales, which is mainly due to the high food prices in the past year. While grocers’ sales rose by 8.3 percent in nominal terms, they fell by 1 percent when inflation was taken into account. In the last quarter, however, price increases in food retail declined, said Thomas.
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In addition to the furniture trade, mail order and internet sales also suffered heavy losses, where sales fell by 7.5 percent after adjusting for inflation. Real sales fell by 4.2 percent in book and sporting goods stores, and by 3.1 percent in pharmacies and cosmetics stores. Things went comparatively well in the clothing and shoe trade, which only recorded a real decline in sales of 0.4 percent. However, here too the difference between nominal (+4.7 percent) and real (-0.4 percent) sales was large.
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