The global market for technological consumer goods grew in value by 5% in 2025, the general director of GfK told Lusa, who estimates that growth this year will be 0.4%, with a very uncertain horizon.
António Salvador was speaking to Lusa on the day that GfK is holding the conference “30 years of deciphering the market”, which will analyze trends in the technological consumer goods market, in an event taking place at the Museu do Oriente, in Lisbon.
“Last year the global market for technological consumer goods grew in dollars […] 5%, so it grew more than we expected”, said Antonio Salvador.
This is one of the results of GfK’s annual analysis of the sector’s performance, which will be discussed this Tuesday, 24th, at a press conference.
“Today it stands at 857 billion dollars, it is the highest level in several years, despite a slowdown in volume”, continued the general director. In other words, “I’m talking about growth in value, which is growth that is also very affected […] due to the devaluation of the dollar”, pointed out Antônio Salvador.
In any case, “it is excellent growth, the value advances faster than the volume of the total […] and grew in all regions”, he summarized.
“We foresee much less pronounced growth in terms of value for 2026, because that growth was largely driven by ‘premium’ niches, which is always difficult to predict that could happen”, it depends “a lot on technological advances, it also naturally depends on transformations in consumer behavior” and the growing influence of artificial intelligence [IA]” and also “new economic and geopolitical dynamics”, he said.
Therefore, in a prospective reading of the market, “we expect much less pronounced growth, of 0.4%, [este ano] significant growth in all regions, with the exception of Asia, and including a decrease in China, of 6%”, he said.
“In the rest of Asia [o crescimento] is ‘flat'” and the other markets “are growing in numbers between 4% and 3%, whether Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with 4%, or Western Europe, North America and Latin America, with 3%”, he detailed.
António Salvador said that despite these data, it is not known what will happen in the world, namely the conflict with Iran.
“The impact of the price of oil and the risk of inflation, in short, are things we will also talk about [na conferência]which can have a ripple effect throughout the value chain”, he continued.
In other words, high oil prices, high logistics and manufacturing costs.
“We just need to remember what happened during Covid, when transport costs grew immensely, there were ‘n’ factories that suddenly stopped working and which then took time to return, to meet the demand” of consumption, he recalled.
“There may be an absorption of margins, there may be a repercussion of costs for manufacturers, there may be a price increase for retailers”, he highlighted.
The lower rise in technological consumer goods has to do with inflation “which we assume will happen, contrary to previous trends, but now, apparently, this is on the table and could lead to restricted spending”, warned Antonio Salvador.
As for the conference, as “it’s the thirtieth, we’re also going to do a little retrospective of what these 30 years have been like in which we’ve been operating and understanding the market, let’s say, deciphering it, but we’re also going to enrich it with three guests”, he highlighted.
One of the guests is António Casanova, CEO of Unilever FIMA and Gallo Worldwide, who will address “Context is no excuse: sustaining growth in a changing market”.
The other two are Daniel Ribeiro, executive director of AGEFE, who will address global challenges/local impact, the electro-digital industry, and Carlos Manuel Oliveira, ‘humantech AI futures researcher’, who will talk about how AI will transform the world.
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