Fusion Report Western Europe - Q4 2009

Western Europe’s Technical Consumer Goods Market improves slightly despite crisis

• SDA: many markets with positive development during the Christmas period 
• MDA: energy efficiency is the key
• Photo: single-lens reflex cameras remain popular
• IT: mobile computers still driving the market
• Consumer Electronics: LCD-TV in much demand
• Office and Consumables: decline slows
• Telecommunication: Smartphones and Touchscreens are soaring

In the fourth quarter of 2009, consumers in Western Europe spent almost EUR 55 billion on technical consumer goods, which means an increase of 0.5% compared to the same quarter of 2008. After three quarters of continuous but alleviating decline in 2009, the fourth quarter shows pleasing growth despite the crisis and many markets become positive. For the fourth quarter some of the major markets in Western Europe like Germany, France and Italy even encountered around a 4.0% increase. Excluding currency effects, the UK market is also back on track. Also smaller markets, like Austria, Belgium and Sweden show slight growth.

Nevertheless the full year 2009 suffered a decline of -5.1%. These findings are based on GfK TEMAX® Western Europe, an information service developed by GfK Retail and Technology.

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The full report and press release for Q4 2009 are available to download in English.

GfK TEMAX is a service from GfK Retail and Technology, the world's leading market researcher tracking technical consumer goods in more than 80 countries.

For more information, visit our website www.gfkrt.com.