
Retail sales down in July
Despite inflation and rising interest rates, sales in Danish retail stores have remained fairly stable, at least until now. Figures from Statistics Denmark show that retail sales fell by as much as 4.4 percent in July, when seasonally adjusted and adjustment for inflation and the number of trading days. July sales were the lowest in 30 months, and particularly the sale of food and other groceries has suffered, dropping by 8.4 percent over the month, and with clothing sales also 5.4 percent less than in June. At the Danish Chamber of Commerce, Senior Economist Kristian Skriver is surprised by the significant decline, partly because consumer confidence is increasing, and employment remains strong. “This is a very sharp decline in retail sales, which we primarily see in connection with economic crises, but I will wait for the figures for August before declaring an economic crisis,” he said. /ritzau/