The US online giant Amazon expects only a slight increase in sales of two to eight percent in the fourth quarter from October to December, which is usually the strongest in terms of sales. One reason is the high inflation in many countries around the world, which reduces the disposable income of many people. The group's pessimistic outlook caused the share price to fall by more than 14 percent.

In the third quarter from July to September, sales increased more than in the two previous quarters. It grew by 14 percent year-on-year to $127.1 billion (127.5 billion euros), as Amazon announced on Thursday. However, that was less than what analysts had expected. Profits shrank by nine percent compared to the previous year to 2.87 billion dollars. However, after two quarters with a loss, the group returned to the profit zone.

Analyst Rob Enderle referred to the high inflation in many countries around the world: "When people have a hard time making ends meet, it hits the retail trade." He criticized that Andy Jassy, ​​who developed the cloud provider Amazon Web Service (AWS), led Amazon. Amazon is a trading company "and a cloud developer is at the helm".