Christmas sales were a fiasco for Czech retailers this year, with December sales dropping by 4 percent compared to December 2011. The only exception were newly opened outlets, which sent the numbers a bit up for their operators. Retail sales in the Czech Republic fell 1.8 percent y-o-y in November and the trend continued in December, normally the strongest period of the year. Retailers are now hoping that the market will bottom out this year.
There’s also a suspicion that increasingly, Czechs are giving cashing instead of actual presents, allowing the recipient to shop when the post-Christmas sales are ongoing. Shoppers also put off the holiday spree until the last moment, with the busiest days being December 21 – 23 this year.
Zdeněk Juračka, president of the Association of Trade and Tourism (SOCR) also criticized the government for postponing its decision on a VAT hike for so long saying that sales could have recovered far sooner.
