Ketchup effect from consumption
Since the start of the crisis goods consumption has been under severe pressure. Danish retail sales have been hard hit, and the level is still more than 10% lower than in 2009. The paradox is, however, that judging from the factors normally deciding the amount of money that consumers spend on goods, the pent-up demand from households is huge. Hence, the reference to the ketchup effect, reflecting a bottle of ketchup that is being shaken hard until all of a sudden the ketchup splashes out of the bottle. Recent data suggest that this might be what is finally about to happen. Christmas sales appear to have been strong, the lower oil price is an unexpected godsend to car and home owners and over the past year employment has increased by 20,000. If 2015 turns out to be the year when the Danes decide to loosen the purse strings in earnest, it will have widespread effects and most likely herald the beginning of a Danish economic boom.
