JM forecasts recovery in H2 of 2022

The President of Portuguese supermarket giant Jerónimo Martins, Pedro Soares dos Santos, forecasts that Portugal’s economy will only get back on track in the second half of 2022.

At a press conference to present the group’s results for 2020, Soares dos Santos said he didn’t hold out much hope that the Portuguese economy would recover this year.
“We think that the recovery in Portugal, or the beginning of things getting back to normal, will start from the second half of 2022,” he said.
He thought that the recovery would happen faster in Poland, where Pingo Doce owns the Biedronka chain of supermarkets, which in 2020 represented almost 70% of the group’s sales.
“In Poland, we forecast that there will be a big recovery in the second half of this year, because the Polish government was always careful not to close down the economy and protect jobs,” the president said.
“I think the recovery will take place as soon as there is a certain level of confidence in the vaccination rate and people start to feel safer. Poland will see a more rapid recovery,”added Soares dos Santos.
Jerónimo Martins presented its results for 2020 on Wednesday, which saw a fall in profits of 19.9% to €312 million. Consolidated sales increased 3.5% to €19.293 million.
Pingo Doce sales fell 1.9% in 2020 in line with forecasts. “The Portuguese consumer is increasingly feeling the pinch and we foresee a stagnation in consumer spending,” said the president of Jerónimo Martins.