The value of the global Technical Consumer Goods market, excluding North America, grew by a record 26 percent to 433 billion US dollars in the first half of 2021 versus the same period last year. GfK expects a moderation in growth for the second half of 2021 due to comparison against peak sales achieved in the second half of 2020. For the full year 2021, GfK expects sales of 1.4 trillion dollars for the total TCG market, including North America, which represents an increase of +12 percent. The IT and Small Domestic Appliances sectors exceeded sales in comparison to the pre-COVID period of 2019: +27 percent for IT and +25 percent for SDA. Other sectors also returned to growth during the first six months: the Consumer Electronics (+18 percent), Telecom (+30 percent), and Major Domestic Appliances (+26 percent) sectors bounced back and grew versus the first half year of 2020. However, the varied infection rates, restrictions, and different paces of vaccination are causing differing levels of growth across the world. Smartphones, which saw double-digit declines in 2020 in Emerging Asia and China, are witnessing +29 percent and +33 percent value growth respectively. In the case of total TCG, regions like Europe (+24 percent) and China (+32 percent) are reaching new levels of demand and Emerging Asian countries are registering strong growth versus the 2020 lockdowns.
