For the German retail trade, the sales figures for June, which are now available, are a catastrophe. The figures are 8.8 percent below the same month last year. There are no signs that consumer spending has increased since then. Apparently, it can hardly be increased with special offers. People are afraid of insolvency, of their personal bankruptcy.
Everyone knows the reasons: The high rate of inflation and the uncertainty about the amount of additional demands when billing the heating costs next spring explain the thriftiness of the people. Additional open shopping Sundays, as suggested by FDP politician Reinhard Houben, will not change that.
Consumers do not lack the time for an additional shopping spree, but lack confidence in stable economic development. As long as politicians cannot convincingly explain how they want to protect citizens from bottlenecks and exorbitant price increases in energy supply in winter, everyone will keep their money together. The high rate of inflation is also slowing down any seemingly avoidable consumption. And in these times everything that does not serve the immediate welfare is considered avoidable. Better to relax on Sunday then.
