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Cigarette sales drop to lowest numbers yet

The Local Germany
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Cigarette sales drop to lowest numbers yet
Photo: DPA

Cigarette sales in Germany are at their lowest level ever though taxes are not taking the hit, new figures released on Monday by the Federal Statistics Bureau showed.

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In 2014, 79.5 billion legal cigarettes were sold, Destatis reported, continuing the trend of decline as more Germans butt out.

However, taxes taken from cigarette sales still netted €20.5 billion for government coffers. In 1991, 146.5 billion cigarettes were sold – nearly twice as many as in the last year – but only brought in €15.9 billion in taxes.

And while cigarettes continue to fall, other tobacco sales are finding new followers.

Cigar and cigarillo sales were up by 8.4 percent to 3.9 billion sales. Pipe tobacco also had a good year, with a 13.2 percent rise in sales to make up a total of 1,359 tonnes of the stuff sold.

On January 1, 2014, there was an increase in taxes on cigarettes and fine-cut tobacco. On the first day of 2015, those products saw another increase in the tax rates.

Consumers of pipe tobacco, cigarillos and cigars did not see the same rise in costs.

SEE ALSO: Balcony smoking times can be limited

 

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