From Burberry to Hugo Boss, from Cartier to Tiffany, foot traffic is down, profits are slumping, stores are closing and markets are shrinking. Across the luxury spectrum, beyond jewelry, watches and valuable gifts that are among the worst performers… even sales of luxury apartments are falling some 20 percent in prime real-estate markets around the world.
At the top of the retail top, gold and diamond jewelry sales, two key trend indicators that signal both a weakening global economy and ensuing economic turmoil, continue to worsen. While the luxury-retail sector blames soft sales primarily on a decline in tourism, unstated in corporate fiscal reports is that the reason tourism is down is a direct consequence of the worsening global recession we forecast as a Top Trend of 2016.