DES GB2012 E

3 savings. This trend is further driven by concerns about the future of the euro. Previously labelled ‚panic savers‘, many Germans have now turned into ‚panic consumers’. MODERATE RETAIL GROWTH While real estate is booming, the performance of the German retail market is somewhat mixed. According to GfK calculations, food retailers and drugstores only saw nominal sales growth of 2.2% to approximately €160 billion, while full-service gro- cery stores showed the best performance with sales up 4.7% in 2012. Discount stores registered stable growth with a sales plus of 2.4%. Overall growth was achieved by setting prices hig- her, as the volume sales of food retailers continued to decline. For 2013, GfK is forecasting a nominal sales increase of 1.5% for food retailers and drugstores, while volumes are expected to continue to fall. In the non-food retail segment, which includes textiles, electro- nic devices, furniture and home improvement products, sales improved by 1.0% in 2012 and rose to around €150 billion. Sales of electronic devices rose by 2.8%, while textiles decreased by 1.6%. Once again, online retail showed the best performance by far, with sales in the non-food segment increasing by 14.0% to almost €24 billion. For 2013, the GfK is expecting the growth rate for non-food retailers to slow down slightly to 0.7%. For food and non-food retail combined, the GfK is forecasting an overall sales increase of 1.1%. { 23 } DES ANNUAL REPORT 2012

DES GB2012 E

Pages