Sales of Germany's retail sector up by 7.7 pct in February

Source: Xinhua | 2020-04-02

Nominal sales in Germany's retail sector increased by 7.7 percent in February compared with the same month last year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Wednesday.

German retailers were experiencing "strong demand for convenient goods" during the coronavirus crisis, Destatis noted. In part, the increased demand was clearly reflected by the growing turnover of Germany's retail sector in February.

Food, beverages and tobacco products in particular were in high demand and grew nominal sales by 10.6 percent year-on-year, according to the provisional figures by Destatis.

The largest increase in sales in the non-food sector was generated by digital and mail order business, with a plus of 11 percent, according to Destatis. However, such a growth was "not unusual" for digital businesses and therefore could not be clearly attributed to a special effect of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sales of pharmacies and the retail trade with cosmetic, pharmaceutical and medical products were up 7.8 percent from the same period of last year and would "show a quite clear influence of the emerging crisis situation," Destatis noted.

Last week, Germany's largest market research institute GfK noted that German retail as a whole "is facing tough times ahead".

"The shut-down of public life is not only leading to stock-piling, but also to a relocation of out of home consumption to people's private homes, causing an increase of sales in grocery stores compared to the previous year," said Robert Kecskes, GfK retail expert.