CPI (consumer price index)

Our (minimum) rents in Germany are 100% linked to the German CPI. A detailed explanation of this index is available here.

The price kaleidoscope (click on the image above) gives a perfect and interactive overview of the weights and price trends of the individual product groups. And it shows, that fashion - which has a weight of approx. 48% in our tenant mix - has only a 4.9% weight in the CPI.

LFL (like-for-like)

A good definition, what l-f-l means, can be found here.

Retail turnover

The official definition of Destatis (German Federal Statistical Office) is available here. The numbers published by Destatis (e.g. for October 2011) are not on a like-for-like basis. It's a sample which includes the turnover development of approx. 27,700 retailers (of the total of approx. 378,000 retail businesses in Germany). To obtain a real turnover index number, the turnover of the individual retail trade branches is deflated by using the relevant price indices and is then related to the price-adjusted base value.

The turnover development Deutsche EuroShop publishes for its tenants are like-for-like comparisons (except where otherwise specified).

Instead of using the general retail turnover development, which includes e.g. fuel stations (increasing fuel prices -> increasing turnover) for comparisons it could be appropriate to may use the turnover developments of selected retail segments (available only in German).

A nice tool to identify trends is the "Business Cycle Monitor", where you can choose the indicators you want to have displayed (best viewed with Mozilla Firefox):

Tip: You should try the animation at the bottom - it may helps to forecast the development.