According to the statistics of the German Furniture Industry Association, in the first quarter of 2023, the German upholstered furniture industry created sales of about 305 million euros, of which With sales of 116 million euros in March, the industry currently accounts for 32.3% of exports and 67.7% of domestic sales. In March 2023, new orders for upholstered furniture in Germany decreased by 10.62% year-on-year, of which new orders generated domestically decreased by 11.2% year-on-year, and foreign orders decreased by 8.75%. Both domestic and foreign demand fell. In addition, in the first quarter, exports fell by 6.19% year-on-year. The main export market was Switzerland, followed by Austria, France and the Netherlands. The most important export market outside Europe was still the United States. The largest decline was Poland, whose export value fell year-on-year. 20.2%. During this period, imports decreased by 21.02%, and the top 5 most important import markets were Poland, followed by China, Hungary, Romania and Turkey. It is noteworthy that in 2022, China won the title of "Germany's largest source of furniture imports". However, in the first quarter of 2023, Germany's upholstered furniture imported from China decreased by 50.2% year-on-year!
Data recently released by the German Federal Statistical Office show that in the first quarter of 2023, GDP will fall by 0.3% year-on-year, which is the fourth quarter after 2022. The second decline after a quarterly decline of 0.5%, and negative GDP growth for two consecutive quarters, means that the German economy has fallen into a "technical recession". Continued high prices will also continue to be a burden for the German economy at the beginning of this year. After adjusting for factors such as prices and seasons, the final consumption expenditure of German households in the first quarter of 2023 will drop by 1.2% from the previous quarter. Food and beverages, clothing and footwear and Spending was lower in areas such as furniture. In addition, government final consumption expenditure also fell by 4.9% compared with the fourth quarter of 2022. Compared with other advanced economies, the German economy is losing growth momentum.
Figure 1 Ifo business indicators of the German upholstered furniture industry from January to May 2023
Data source: German Furniture Industry Association
Data released by the German Ifo Economic Research Institute showed that after seasonal adjustment, the German business climate index in May dropped from 93.4 points in the previous month to 91.7 points, the index fell for the first time in nearly six months. The Ive business climate index is regarded as the weathervane of Germany's economic development. Economists predict that the German economy may stagnate in the second quarter of this year. In contrast, in the German upholstered furniture industry, from January to May 2023, after the improvement in February, the business situation has started a continuous decline. At the same time, the overall industry business environment will continue to weaken in 2023, but the expectations in May There has been a turnaround. The number of employees in the German upholstered furniture industry has increased from 4,145 at the end of 2022 to 4,710 in March 2023, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%, which also reflects a mild recovery in the upholstered furniture manufacturing industry to some extent. On the whole, although the development of the German upholstered furniture industry may improve in the future, under the background of the overall bad economic environment, the development of the upholstered furniture industry is still full of many uncertainties.
微信扫一扫打赏
