May 8 (Reuters) - Retailers are experiencing the worst economic downturn in living memory, according to a straw poll of delegates at the World Retail Congress in Barcelona.
Following are some of the latest quotes from the three-day event, which ends on Friday:
(For earlier comments please click on)
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
"In my opinion, the rate of growth, the rate of opportunity (for retailers), putting us back to where we were in 2007, won't happen up until 2012," Vittorio Radice, Chief Executive at La Rinascente. For more, click on
"I think now it's bottomed, but it's not showing any signs of recovery yet," Philip Clarke, head of Tesco's international business, referring mainly to Tesco's markets in Asia and central and eastern Europe.
"I think you have to look at it from both the fiscal point of view and the amount of borrowing that's got to be paid back sometime," New Look Chairman Phil Wrigley on the outlook for consumer spending.
EUROPEAN CONSUMERS
"The UK has recognised the severity of the crisis before many other countries in Europe... The final customer has realised I need to put my house in order... I don't see that much of a change in the conversation (elsewhere in Europe). I think that realisation will come as people lose their jobs" -- Vittorio Radice, Chief Executive at La Rinascente.
(Reporting by Mark Potter and Sarah Morris; editing by Simon Jessop)