The tide is turning in retail
High In retail trade, which spent 2022 recovering with tourism spending, the wind changed in the last period of the year with the decrease in the purchasing power of the domestic consumer and the increasing price increases. While most industry representatives who were in a ‘wait and see’ situation did not expect a change in their business, assessments for 2022 turnover followed a more negative course than 2021, according to the Retail Confidence Index prepared by TEPAV.
NO CHANGE EXPECTED
In December 2022, 6.3% of TEPE survey respondents said they expected their business to improve in the next 3 months, while 16.1% expected their business to worsen. The rate of those who did not expect a change in their job was 77.6%. According to the research, expectations for improvement arose from foreign customers and market activity. The worsening expectations were justified by the increase in costs and the increase in sales prices, the decrease in purchasing power and the contraction in demand. With these results, it was confirmed that the sector’s recovery trend in the July-October 2022 period was subsequently reversed, while retail confidence decreased in December 2022 compared to the previous month and closed 2022 at a negative level. In the report, which indicated that the valuations in terms of business volume for 2022 were more negative than those of 2021, when the effects of the pandemic continued, it was stated that “When the situation of the business is analyzed quarterly compared to the previous year above, the value of 2022 in the second quarter is 21.4 points below the value of 2021”.
Expected increase in prices
According to the TEPE survey, in December 2022, all assessments and expectations except “current stock level” and “state of business compared to last year” changed positively compared to December 2021, while the “expectation of sales prices in the next 3 months” increased. In December it was noted that despite the drop in inflation with the current base effect, the sector expects an increase in sales prices in the next 3 months.