Furniture, stagnation continues

For the recovery of the furniture industry in Italy we must wait at least 2013. And this is valid − except for the running of the emerging countries mainly in Asia and South America − generally on a global scale throughout the Western economy still affected by the crisis. This show the data of Csil (Centre for Industrial Studies) that presented in Milan the “Forecast Report on the furniture industry in Italy on 2012/2013” and “World Furniture Outlook 2012” dedicated to world trade of furniture.
As for Italy, according to preliminary 2011 data and forecasts prepared by Csil for 2012-2013, the current year has marked a new collapse of the Italian furniture market, with a production at -4.7 percent and a domestic consumption which lost 7.5 percent in real terms and will not grow even in the next two years, due to possible consolidation measures that will further compress the incomes. The 2012 estimated decrease in the domestic market of furniture is 3.6 percent at constant prices, and will also lead to a contraction in imports. Better situation on the export side, which are estimated in 2011 to increase of 2.3 percent in real terms with the prospect of further growth in 2012.
World trade of furniture will grow modestly in 2012 after the sharp contraction of 2009. With a global value at producing prices (excluding the markup for the distribution) of about 370 billion Us dollars, the best markets for furniture consumption in 2012 will be Asia and the Pacific  area (an increase of about 6.5%), followed by South America (just under 4%), Middle East and Africa (about 3.6%), Central and Eastern Europe and Russia (2.8%) and North America (2%). Bad for the Western Europe, losing about 0.5 per cent.