Wholesaling: Improvement in the Current Business Situation

In wholesaling, the business climate indicator rose again in May, after having fallen in the previous three months. The main reason for this was the current business situation, which was noticeably more favourable than in April. The improvement for wholesalers of food and beverages was particularly evident. In May as well, the positive assessments of the outlook outweighed negative ones, but the balance was down for the sixth time in a row. Compared to the sales of the same month of the previous year, the participants are currently very satisfied. According to official figures, nominal sales grew by 7.4% in January and by 2.6% in February. Sales prices were raised in many places, and respondents also expect good pricing opportunities for the coming three months. The wholesale selling price index rose 1.4% in April. As inventories increased for the third time, order plans were again more restrictive; however, about a quarter of survey participants plan to expand their orders over the next three months. At 1.7%, the number of employees increased slightly in February compared to the average of the previous year (1.3%). Also in the coming months, new hiring is planned in many places. Some participants point out that the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation will bind considerable resources and its implementation will cause headaches for many companies.