Deloitte: Retail, tech to break out in 2021

First, retail. While the first half of 2021 is expected to be relatively quiet for merchants,
Deloitte's experts believe the second half of the year will see overall US GDP growth
come much closer to Q4 2019 levels. They expect a full return of GDP by early 2022.
This growth, they say, will come as the supply chain begins returning to normal and
people begin venturing out more after having the COVID-19 vaccine.

However, they don't believe all concerns about health or safety will evaporate. In fact,
Deloitte's experts believe they will remain a priority throughout retail about the overall
safety of workers and of shoppers.

Tech, too, is expected to see significant growth in areas like telehealth, education, and
cloud growth.

"While some technologies followed expected growth patterns, the reality of a global pandemic has resulted in unprecedented technology acceleration that has fundamentally changed how we live and work," said Ariane Bucaille, Deloitte Global Technology, Media & Telecommunications Industry leader. "A range of enterprise and consumer technologies--from 5G to the cloud to virtual reality--will continue to offer opportunities to the worldwide business ecosystem."

Telehealth is one area where much growth is expected. According to the report about
5% of all doctor visits will be conducted via video conference by the end of 2021. While
that may not seem like a huge increase, they note that only 1% of visits were made via
telehealth in 2019 - that 1% represents more than 8.5 billion doctor's visits.

As to the cloud, Deloitte's experts believe more companies will migrate to the cloud
between 2021 and 2025; they expect the growth rate to average about 30%.

distribution-industry-outlook.html">More data from the Deloitte forecast can be
accessed here

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