Despite the fact that the Swedish Riksbank has now announced more interest rate cuts, trading companies' expectations for the future remain gloomy. Now the Riksbank and the Government are required to take responsibility for creating the conditions for a recovery of consumers' purchasing power.
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Future expectations are falling in two out of three sub-industries, and companies in the industry's view of the next three months based on the parameters of sales, profitability and number of employees, remain pessimistic. This is because all sub-industries are below the neutral value of 100.
'This month's Trade Barometer shows what we have been pointing out for a long time. Households continue to hold on to their wallets as a result of, among other things, high inflation and high interest costs. The fact that the Riksbank recently announced that more interest rate cuts are to be expected was positive, but we believe that the pace needs to be significantly more aggressive. Sweden needs an effective Riksbank,' says Sofia Larsen, CEO of Svensk Handel.
Future expectations in retail trade, which consists of daily consumer goods trade and consumer durables, rose by 0.3 points in August. The future indicator thus lands at 91.2. The main reason was that companies in the grocery trade believe in increased sales in the next three months. At the same time, expectations for the future fell in the consumer durables trade.
'It's a toxic cocktail that the consumer durables trade has been served. High inflation, which leads to extreme rent increases, combined with customers consuming less in stores, means that the optimism we noted in the first months of the year can now unfortunately be considered to have been blown away. The government now has a great responsibility in living up to its promises to work hard to restore household purchasing power,' says Sofia Larsen.
More information:
Svensk Handel
www.svenskhandel.se