Development of sales in wholesale timber trade (changes in % year on year): The coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine led to a noticeable gap between real-term and nominal sales in wholesale trade | © Destatis, GD Holz
„The general weakness of the German economy combined with decreasing demand and high pressure due to rising costs are heavily impacting wholesale trade companies,” as the German Timber Trade Association (GD Holz) reports. According to the BGA, which represents the interests of wholesale and foreign trade companies as well as B2B service providers, sales generated in wholesale trade in August saw a much more marked decrease, both in real (-4.5%) and nominal terms (-6.3%), than in previous months. The BGA does not expect an inversion of trend for Germany any time soon and sees an impetus for growth as necessary.
Sales in business-to-business trade, which are an indicator for the development of production, decreased by 12.3% in nominal and by 6% in real terms compared to August 2022. Wholesale trade in consumer goods, an indicator for consumer demand, was more stable. In real terms, there was a 2.7% decrease in sales, while an increase of 1.9% was recorded in nominal terms.
Wholesale prices have been lower than last year since April, as a result of which real-term sales saw less marked decreases than nominal sales.
