Last week, hotels and restaurants had their biggest loss in sales so far in 2020, and there are no signs of early Christmas sales.
This is shown by Swedbank card statistics, according to a press release on Wednesday.
”"It is clear that activities that involve meeting other people continue to be negatively affected by the pandemic. We expect a turnaround for the better to take until spring 2021," says Andreas Wallström, head of forecasting at Swedbank, in a comment.
After a temporary slowdown in the decline during the previous week, the decline in hotels and restaurants continued last week.
Hotel and restaurant turnover is now 54 percent lower than last year. This is the largest decline in 2020.
Cinemas, concerts and theatres also continued to lose sales, with sales now 91 percent lower than last year. Travel-related card purchases have also declined further.
Konsumtionen i Sverige var som helhet 8 procent lägre under veckan som slutade den 5 december, jämfört med motsvarande vecka i fjol. Det är en lika stor nedgång som veckan innan.
Retail sales were 2 percent higher last week than the corresponding week last year. This was primarily due to a 10 percent increase in grocery sales.
Like last year, December started relatively calmly and at a significantly lower level than during Black Week. There was no sign that Christmas shopping had started unusually early. Last year, sales rose the most the week before Christmas and the biggest shopping day around Christmas was December 20th.
Source: Nyhetsbyrån Direkt
