The sale and repair of motor vehicles was the only segment of consumption to grow in Slovakia in December 2021, with revenues going up 1.1% from November and 16.8% year-on-year (y-o-y), said UniCredit Bank analyst Ľubomír Koršňák. According to him, the tightening of pandemic measures was reflected more in some services than in retail. Retail revenues in December 2021 went down 3% from November 2021. In a y-o-y comparison, revenues grew 1.1% last December. On average for the whole of 2021, retail revenues increased by 1.4% y-o-y and they grew by 0.3% when compared to the pre-pandemic period (2019).
"We expect relatively strong y-o-y growth in revenues in upcoming months, as the omicron wave of the pandemic has been reducing economic activity and household consumption much more moderately than last year's alpha wave of the pandemic. Despite the strong technical y-o-y growth in revenues at the beginning of the year, they should not fundamentally differ from the pre-pandemic levels and should still move around the levels seen at the beginning of 2019 and 2020," stated Koršňák. He does not expect the pandemic to significantly limit consumption in the upcoming months, either. Deferred consumption might further support its post-pandemic recovery. On the other hand, consumption could be dampened down by high inflation, he added.
Source: TASR
