Retail turnover in 2021 expected to be up 0.9% in real terms on 2020

Non-food retail gains, textile retail loses

Source: PantherMedia / Federico Caputo

According to an estimate of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), turnover in retail trade in Germany recorded a new record high in 2021.

The real (price-adjusted) turnover in retail trade was 0.6% to 1.2% higher and the nominal (not price-adjusted) turnover was 2.8% to 3.4% higher in 2021 compared with 2020, the year with the highest turnover ever recorded. The resulting mean year-on-year rates of change were 0.9% on a real basis and 3.1% on a nominal basis.

However, the results for the months of January to November 2021 indicate that parts of shop-based retail trade, such as retail trade in textiles, clothing, footwear and leather products, suffered losses in turnover in the second year of the coronavirus crisis, too.

Retail turnover, November 2021 (provisional, calendar and seasonally adjusted)

• +0.6% on the previous month (in real terms)
• +1.1% on the previous month (in nominal terms)
• -2.9% on the same month a year earlier (in real terms)
• +0.2% on the same month a year earlier (in nominal terms)

Annual result of 2021 (estimate, provisional)

• +0.9% in 2021 compared with 2020 (in real terms)
• +3.1% in 2021 compared with 2020 (in nominal terms)