1、END OF YEAR REPORTLOOKING AHEADTO THE CHALLENGES OF 2023A WORLD RETAIL CONGRESS PUBLICATIONINTRODUCTION:THE BIGGEST PRIORITIES FOR 2023The year began with fresh waves of Covids latest variant,Omicron,which brought with it more restrictions,closures and cancellations across all walks of life,retail i

2、ncluded.But at the same time,there was seen to be light at the end of the tunnel as vaccine programmes gathered pace and the severity of the infection began to wane.Lockdowns were also easing gradually and we all dared to think about the“post-pandemic”world.It was to be the core focus of the World R

3、etail Congress which was finally able to meet in person in April,in Rome.It was the first physical meeting of the Congress in three years,which was important in itself but was deemed even more so just because it allowed the industry to finally meet.However,if we have learned nothing else from the tu

4、multuous and unprecedented events of the last three years,it should be that we can never rule out another twist or turn.And so it proved with the invasion of Ukraine on February 24th.At the World Retail Congress in Rome,Dr Ira Kalish,the chief global economist for Deloitte summed up the economic and

5、 geopolitical picture brilliantly as ever.In his keynote presentation he said that:“If you had asked me three months ago about the outlook,I would have said that things are going a lot better.But war in Ukraine has changed all that”.He added that the conflict has thrown“a massive monkey wrench”into

6、what had been a gradually improving global economic picture.It set the tone for the discussions across this years World Retail Congress-that retail was suddenly going to have to learn how to live with inflation rates never seen for over 30 years coupled with an energy crisis,growing supply chain bot