The mayor of Hanau, Claus Kaminsky, finds dramatic words in the “Spiegel”: The inner cities in Germany are “in the middle of their fateful decade,” he tells the magazine.
Reason: Fewer and fewer people come to the shopping streets to shop. The stationary trade – but also the gastronomy close to the city center – are suffering from a slump in consumption.
First because of Corona, now because of energy prices. Then there is inflation, which makes people’s salaries less valuable. The new “Germany study city center” comes to the conclusion that the city centers have to make do with around 30 percent fewer visitors than before Corona.
And more and more customers are apparently not planning to return. Between the autumn of last year and the summer of this year alone, the mood changed dramatically: According to the figures from the study, less than 25 percent of those surveyed said they would visit the city center “less often” or “not at all” in the future, but these values are now the case increased to almost a third.
However, the study also shows possible solutions. The inner cities, especially of medium-sized to large cities, would have to change in order to become attractive again. Retail and gastronomy are playing less and less of a role. This requires a larger range of digital services, clean sidewalks and, most importantly, better public toilets. According to the study, these are important “across all age limits”.
Everything looks as if the ECB will finally take the inflation problem seriously. But a few rate hikes won’t do the trick. By hesitating for so long, the ECB has gambled away its most valuable asset.
The US software group Oracle posted a strong increase in sales in the most recent fiscal quarter thanks to its booming cloud services and a takeover. However, the profit collapsed due to high costs.
The recovery on the New York stock exchanges continued at the beginning of the week. Investors are waiting for signs of a further slowdown in inflation dynamics in the USA.
