The German retail trade turned over less last year than in 2021. Price-adjusted sales were 0.6 percent below the previous year’s value, as the Federal Statistical Office reported on Tuesday.

Only the strong price increases were ultimately responsible for the fact that nominal record sales ended up in the tills at the end of the year, exceeding the previous record year 2021 by 7.8 percent. The Federal Office corrected the provisional calculations from January 6 downwards with the information.

For months, sharply increased prices for energy and food have been slowing down private consumption. With a real minus of 4.6 percent, sales of foodstuffs fell last year more than at any time since the time series was introduced in 1994. The largest real increases of 27 percent were in shops for textiles, clothing, shoes and leather goods, albeit from a very weak level from the previous year, which was shaped by corona. In the pre-crisis year of 2019, this is still 7.6 percent missing.

Even the Christmas business could do little to change the doldrums. According to the figures, December 2022 was significantly weaker than November. Compared to the same month of the previous year, sales fell by 6.4 percent in real terms, but achieved nominal growth of 4.2 percent due to the sharply increased prices. Internet trading also weakened at the end of the year compared to 2021, but was still well above the pre-crisis level.