Press release No. 478 of 2 December 2020
Wholesale turnover, September 2020 (calendar and seasonally adjusted, provisional)
-0.3% real on the previous month
-0.4% nominal on the previous month
Wholesale turnover, third quarter 2020 (provisional)
+1.1% real on the same quarter a year earlier
-1.1% nominal on the same quarter a year earlier
WIESBADEN – The wholesale companies in Germany reached in September 2020 calendar and seasonally adjusted 0.3% less turnover in real terms (adjusted for prices) and 0.4% less turnover in nominal terms (not adjusted for prices) compared to the previous month. Nevertheless, the turnover level in wholesale trade continues to be 2.9% lower than the level of February 2020. February was the month before the first COVID-19 lockdown took place in Germany.
As further reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the turnover for wholesale trade in September 2020 was in comparison with September 2019 real 4.3% and nominal 2.4% higher. In the 3rd quarter of 2020, the wholesale companies had a real 1.1% increase and nominal 1.1% decrease in volume of sales compared to the 3rd quarter of 2019. The wholesale of raw materials, semi-finished goods and machines (production related trade), an indicator for industrial production and export, increased in the 3nd quarter of 2020 real by 0.3% and decreased by 4.6% in nominal terms compared to the same period in the previous year. One reason for the sharp decline in real terms is a price drop in the wholesale of solid fuels and petroleum products: In the 3rd quarter of 2020, prices were 17.1% lower than in the 3rd quarter of 2019. In addition, wholesale with consumable goods (consumption related trade) had a gain of 2.1% (in real terms) and 2.9% (in nominal nominal) in the same periods.
Basic data and long time series are available in table Turnover in wholesale trade (45211-0004) in the GENESIS-Online database.
