Germans rushed to reopen wallets after lockdown eased

[northernladuk]

[BR14]

You do cause you when the strongest economy in Europe is doing well then the EU is doing well and when it is doing well they have time to spend on your silly brexit project. Still quite far down the list mind.

do i?? let me think................................



nope.
i don't.
so feck off faux fritz, go polish your leather shorts.

oh, and it's not 'my' brexit project, either, bawbag numpty.

[RasputinDude]

Plenty of people on the s-bahn wearing the obligatory mundschutz around their chins or necks where I am

In the shops and foodcourts people appear to be following the rules mostly though. I don't know where you are but the difference that I see where I am between three weeks ago and yesterday is pretty much negligible

[scooterscot]

WGAFF??

You do cause you when the strongest economy in Europe is doing well then the EU is doing well and when it is doing well they have time to spend on your silly brexit project. Still quite far down the list mind.

[LondonManc]

You get out there shopping Scooty. Those big shop windows won't lick themselves.

[minestrone]

[original PM]

COVID-19: Herd immunity may occur sooner than previously thought

[BR14]

WGAFF??

[scooterscot]

Did go into town the other day, got some clothes and what not. Every shop has a mandatory hand sanitiser on entrance and a separate Ausgang for folks leaving the shop. Only people not wearing a mask were those walking on the street - but once indoors.. attitudes are visibly different but largely people continue about their business as much as they can. Was surprised to see so much activity around building sites. Defo a lot of investment suddenly going on in town. They must have heard BoJO saying Build Build Build or something.

German consumers rushed to reopen their wallets after the lifting of coronavirus lockdowns in May, pushing retail sales in the country up by a record 13.9 per cent from the previous month, according to data published on Wednesday.


The monthly jump was the largest since the start of the data series in 1994, the Federal Statistical Agency said, and sales were 3.8 per cent higher than they were in the same month last year, suggesting that the easing of lockdowns released pent-up demand.


The data are the latest evidence that the German economy is rebounding from its low point when the pandemic was in full force, despite the fact that social-distancing rules remain in place and many large-scale public events are closed. Some economists said they could revise their estimates for the country’s economy upwards as a result.


“Taking advantage of the early reopening of shops, German consumers opened their wallets like never before in May,” said Holger Schmieding, economist at Berenberg. “The German retail sales data point to an upside risk to our forecast.”


The retail rebound was driven by a surge in online and mail-order sales, which rose 28.7 per cent year on year in May. Food retail sales in supermarkets and groceries advanced 4.9 per cent year on year, Destatis said, while sales of furnishings, household appliances and building supplies were up 8.6 per cent.


However, not all sectors benefited; sales of textiles, clothing, shoes and leather goods were down 22.6 per cent from the same period a year ago, while sales of cosmetic, pharmaceutical and medical products fell 6.3 per cent. Month-on-month figures were unavailable at sector level.

This commenter is right on:

Johnson & Co must be fuming. His initial Darwinian plan to forgo lockdown to accomplish herd immunity and avoid substantial harm to the economy compared to those conservative EU peers has seriously back-fired. We have the highest percentage of excess deaths of any OECD country and an exit strategy in tatters. Instead of leap-frogging sclerotic EU economies and getting our post-Brexit existence of to a flying start, we have failed at the first hurdle. Those major European economies have managed the pandemic better and will recover more quickly.

source: Subscribe to read | Financial Times