Almost all sectors of the economy want to raise prices in the next three months: According to a survey by Munich’s Leibniz Institute for Economic Research (ifo), almost two-thirds of wholesale and retail companies are planning to raise their prices. Almost 86 percent of food retailers in particular assume that they will make their offers more expensive, in industry it is around 56 percent of companies and in the construction industry around 43 percent. Only in the service sector are the prospects of cost increases less frequent, report Onvista/Reuters.
The reason for the price increases are the increased costs for the purchase and delivery of primary products and commodities for energy and The cost of importing energy rose by almost 144 percent, the price of natural gas was four times higher than in January 2021, and oil (+66.8 percent) and mineral products (+73.2 percent) also recorded significant price increases. Because of the war in Ukraine, the cost of oil and gas is expected to continue to rise. Oil prices rose above $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014 on the day Russia invaded Ukraine.
For 2022, the head of the Ifo economic forecasts, Timo Wollmershäuser, expects the inflation rate to rise significantly: “A five in front of the decimal point of the inflation rate for 2022 as a whole is currently more likely than a three.”
Corona pandemic: Orsay separates from 79 shops
Fashion retailer Orsay will close 79 of its current 179 in Germany. The closures are said to affect up to 212 of the 1,179 employees, as reported by Fashionunited. As a result of the corona pandemic, Orsay had to accept high sales losses. At the end of November 2021, the company applied for a protective shield procedure in self-administration because there was a risk of insolvency: Orsay only received a 33 million euro loan from the WSF Economic Stabilization Fund in the summer.
Secondhand: Rebelle dares surprising IPO in Sweden
The second-hand marketplace Rebelle surprisingly dared to go public on February 25th. The company for used designer goods was founded in Hamburg in 2013 according to the start-up scene is now listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Stockholm, for the first time with Nasdaq Green Designations – an additional indication that increases the company’s visibility among investors looking for sustainable investments.
The issue price of the shares was the equivalent of EUR 2.64, but the share lost almost 40 percent in value on the first day of trading, and on the afternoon of February 25 the value was EUR 1.97. The targeted fixed price of EUR 2.64 each results in a total market value of the shares of around EUR 40 million before and EUR 60 million after the IPO. Rebelle currently has around two million customers per month and offers around 250,000 unique designer pieces.
