Tabacco Expenditures Sink in Second Quarter

The Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden reported that expenditures on tobacco sank by 13.4 percent in the second quarter of 2004. The statistics office recorded tax paid on €5.4 billion ($6.7 billion) worth of tobacco products, a decrease of €843 million compared with the same quarter last year. Cigarette sales decreased most noticeably, by 26.2 percent. Statisticians reported that since the last round of tax increases on tobacco products in March, there's been a continued trend in sales toward cheaper fine-cut tobacco mainly used by smokers who roll their own cigarettes. Sales of cigars and cigarillos, as well as pipe tobacco also fell by 9.4 and 7.6 percent respectively.