MADRID
Inditex (BME:ITX), which owns the fashion brand Zara, reported on Wednesday a 24.5% increase in six-month sales and a higher profit than a year ago. This means that July ended on a strong note, just as investors were worried that fashion demand was starting to drop last month because of high inflation.
The company said that between February and July, its sales went up from 11.9 billion euros to 14.84 billion euros ($14.82 billion). During the same time period in 2021, sales were only 11.9 billion euros. It made a net profit of 1.79 billion euros, which is 41% more than last year’s net profit of 1.27 billion euros.
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CEO Oscar Garcia Maceiras said that sales have been going up quickly over the last few weeks. But the annual growth rate has slowed a little since the end of the first half. From August 1 to September 11, it was 11% in constant currency.
Analysts had predicted that the results would be the same, and they were right. The next three months, from August to January, are likely to be hard because rising costs of living may make people spend less.
($1 = 1.0012 euros)
