Big discrepancies in Europe

The European home improvement association Edra has observed a vast spread in growth rates in DIY retailing in the first three months of this year. While the sector has achieved growth of 14 per cent in Russia compare with the same quarter last year, according to Edra (albeit with an inflation rate of 17 per cent), sales in Switzerland, which is at the bottom of the rankings, fell by 8.0 per cent in this period. According to this estimate, which was presented at the 3rd Global DIY Summit in London, Germany also lags far behind at -5.7 per cent.
Edra estimates the trend in individual countries as follows:
Russia: + 14.0 per cent
Sweden: +7.0 per cent
Spain: +7.0 per cent
Turkey: +6 per cent
Norway: +3.3 per cent
Ireland: +4.0 per cent
Italy: +2.0 per cent
France*: +2.47 per cent
Austria*: -4.9 per cent
Finland*: -5.4 per cent
Germany*: -5.7 per cent
Switzerland*: -8.0 per Cent
*Association figures