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Crafts President Peter Wollseifer:
Photo: Christoph Soeder / dpa
The President of the Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH), Peter Wollseifer, has put consumers in the mood for rising prices.
In the “Passauer Neue Presse” on Thursday, he named delivery bottlenecks and price jumps for many raw materials, materials and intermediate products as well as higher energy costs as reasons.
The price pressure in the construction trades, for example, was significantly higher than the official inflation rate before the pandemic, for example due to rising procurement and energy costs, Wollseifer told the newspaper.
“At the moment, there are also special effects such as the economic restart after the lockdown, the expiry of the temporary VAT cut or the supply chain problems.
That is why our craft businesses will not be able to avoid raising prices in the coming months. "
The prospects are improving for the companies, said Wollseifer.
“In many trades, the business situation is better again after the lockdown easing.” But the losses incurred by many would first have to be compensated for.
The business situation remains a major challenge for many companies.
Customer frequency is still lower than before the pandemic, because demand has fundamentally changed due to migration to online retail, for example, or companies cannot find enough employees, said Wollseifer.
The new training year seems to be clearly better than 2020. »By the end of June, significantly more new training contracts had already been concluded.
We are a good 13 percent above the previous year's figure. ”The aim is to return to pre-crisis levels by the end of the year.
dab / AFP
