European consumer spending on food, drinks and care products barely grew 0.2 % in the first quarter of 2017. A late Easter had something to do with that, but the continued low inflation numbers also had their effect.
Barely any inflation
The Nielsen report shows supermarket sales in 21 European countries: overall, volumes dropped 0.7 % on the back of a 0.9 % price increase. That yielded a meagre 0.2 % turnover for supermarkets, the lowest number in eight years’ time. This year’s Easter holiday had a negative effect on the entire quarter.
“Price inflation is the most important number, because the low sales growth and lower volumes are entirely because of Easter”, vice president Olivier Deschamps confirmed. “The 0.9 % consumer price increase is stable compared to the 1 % in 2016, which indicates there is not a lot of inflation pressure in the European FMCG market.”
Belgium is stable, the Netherlands experience drop
Belgian normal growth was 0.0 %: volumes dropped 0.9 % (because of a late Easter) but prices also grew 0.9 %, balancing each other out. In the Netherlands, volumes dropped 1.9 % and prices went up 1.7 %, which is a 0.2 % turnover drop overall.
Out of every country in the report, Turkey performed best with an 11.6 % turnover increase. Slovakia (+ 3.9 %) and Hungary (+ 3.4 %) are a distant second and third. On the other end of the scale, Greece is one of the worst students in the class, with a 7.3 % drop. Greek sales have been negative since the start of 2016.
Looking at the five major European markets, Spain performed best (+ 2.2 %), followed by Italy (+ 0.7 %). Germany and the United Kingdom did not fare as well, with a 1.5 turnover drop.
