Only 71 days until Christmas! Until then, many people will be looking for gifts and that will obviously make local retailers happy. However, he is not overly optimistic about the future, as Christoph Teller and Ernst Gittenberger of the Johannes Kepler University in Linz analyze.
In their current analysis, the two marketing and retail management experts from Linz highlight the assessments of Austrian retailers for the upcoming fourth quarter and the expected developments around Christmas activities.
Difficult economic situation
“The assessments of managers in the Austrian retail sector reflect the current difficult economic situation. The macroeconomic recession continues to weigh on the spending mood of private households, which are increasingly responding with ‘anxious saving’,” Teller and Gittenberger explain. That would also have a negative impact on the coming Christmas business and that is very important for a positive annual result in many industries.
Not all countries are the same
What is exciting in this context is that in 18 of the 25 EU countries (no data available for Luxembourg and Ireland) the outlook for the fourth quarter and therefore for 2024 Christmas activities is positive. In addition to Austria, the prospects in Hungary, Belgium, France and especially Germany are rather bleak.
No surprise
“The negative outlook of Austrian retail managers is not surprising. The overall economy is still in recession, the retail economy – especially in non-food retail – is not picking up and consumer recovery is not in sight, despite higher wages and falling inflation,” says Christoph Teller.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
