Market
The European economy slid into a deep recession at the end of 2008. The decline in economic growth was especially steep in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009. From the third quarter of 2009 onwards, the situation started to stabilise: the Euro Area officially pulled out of the recession. The resumption of growth came earlier than some expected and was helped by the exceptional monetary and fiscal measures put in place as part of economic recovery plans. Annual GDP growth for 2009 as a whole was still 4.0% negative, an unprecedented contraction in the history of the Euro Area. Except for government spending, which grew 2.4%, all components of GDP were negative compared to 2008. Especially investments (-10.6%) together with both imports (-11.1%) and exports (-13.6%) showed a steep decline in 2009. Private consumption also fell, albeit more modestly, by 0.9%. As a result of the recession, the labour market has deteriorated significantly over the past year, leading to a climb in the unemployment rate to 9.4%, an all-time high in the Euro Area, up from an all-time low of 7.5% in 2008. From the end of 2008, inflation continued to ease, reaching an average of 0.3% over 2009 in the Euro Area. Against this backdrop retail turnover contracted 2.0% in the EU15 from 2008. In real terms, retail sales fell 1.3%. As in 2008 the food sector performed better than the non-food sector and the health and beauty sector held up exceptionally well. After contracting sharply in 2008, consumer confidence rose again in the course of 2009, although the pessimists continued to outnumber the optimists. In the European retail real estate market, a further polarisation between prime (A) and secondary retail locations became manifest in 2009. Prime locations weathered the crisis better than secondary locations and the gap in vacancy rates and market rents between both locations widened in 2009.
Source: Annual Report 2009, Chapter Review of Operations, page 38 (PDF, 6.362 kB)
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