Retail Trade - August 2010

In August, seasonally adjusted (SA) sales in retail trade including automotive segment decreased month-on-month by 0.9% at constant prices and increased by 1.1% in the year-on-year comparison. The y-o-y increase of seasonally non-adjusted sales by 2.8% was influenced mainly by sale of motor vehicles and non-food goods. Partially it was influenced by a higher number of working days (+1) in August 2010 than in August 2009.
With seasonal, calendar and working day adjustment sales in retail trade including automotive segment decreased in August by 0.9%, at constant prices, m-o-m, and increased by 1.1% in the year-on-year comparison (after only working days adjustment by 1.0%). Seasonally non-adjusted sales increase by 2.8%, y-o-y, was influenced mainly by sale of motor vehicles and non-food goods, which are assortments partially depending on the number of working days. In August 2010 there was 1 working day more than in August 2009. Sale of motor vehicles contributed to the growth by 3.0 percentage points, non-food goods by 0.9 p.p., while a negative influence came from sale of automotive fuel (contribution -1.5 p.p.; see Table 2).
Seasonally adjusted sales in sale and repair of motor vehicles (CZ-NACE 45) increased by 1.0% at constant prices, m-o-m, and in the year-on-year comparison by 9.0%. Seasonally non-adjusted sales increased by 12.9%, y-o-y, of which the sale of motor vehicles increased by 14.0% and maintenance and repair of motor vehicles by 7.3%. The increase of sales at constant prices is contributed to (already for a longer period) by a price fall of motor vehicles (-8.2% in August). According to the data of the Automotive Industry Association, in August 2010 fewer vehicles got registered than a year ago. The difference between this fact and the increase of sales can be partially explainable by the inclusion of wholesale activity in sales (including export), which increased markedly in some enterprises in August. Another difference lies in the sales structure (sales at constant prices include also eventual change of the structure of sales in favour of more expensive vehicles); moreover, only imported second-hand motor vehicles are liable to the first registration (and not those vehicles, which had been already registered in the Czech Republic).
In retail sale including sale of automotive fuel (CZ-NACE 47) seasonally adjusted sales at constant prices decreased by 1.7%, m-o-m, and in the y-o-y comparison by 2.0%. Seasonally non-adjusted sales decreased by 0.7%, y-o-y, to which retail sale of automotive fuel contributed by -2.0 p.p. (y-o-y decrease by 11.6%), while a positive contribution came from sale of non-food goods (+1.2 p.p., growth by 2.5%) and food (+0.1 p.p., growth by 0.3%).

In a more detailed breakdown, increases were reported mainly from retail sale via mail order houses or via Internet (+16.7%), retail sale of clothing, footwear and leather goods in specialised stores (+9.4%), retail sale of second-hand goods in stores (+9.1%), retail sale of information and communication equipment in specialised stores (+8.5%), retail sale of cultural and recreation goods in specialised stores (+3.5%), retail sale via stalls and markets (+0.8%) and retail sale in non-specialised stores (+0.7%). On the contrary, sales decreased in retail sale of food, beverages and tobacco in specialised stores (-4.6%), other retail sale not in stores, stalls or markets (-4.5%) and retail sale of other household equipment in specialised stores (-1.1%).

The price deflator related to the corresponding period of the previous year was 100.5%. A marked price increase was recorded in the sale of automotive fuel in specialised stores (+12.4%), markedly smaller increase was reported for prices of pharmaceutical and medical goods (+1.1%). The biggest price drops were reported for prices of information and communication equipment in specialised stores (-6.0%), and second-hand goods in stores (-5.6%).

In August 2010, according to data released by Eurostat, SA retail sales (CZ-NACE 47) in the EU27 decreased by 0.3% at constant prices, month-on-month; working day adjusted sales increased by 0.8%, year-on-year. The biggest increases were reported for Poland (+6.7%), Finland (+5.5%) and Latvia (+4.6%), while the fastest fall of sales was reported for Lithuania (-6.9%), Spain (-4.6%) and Bulgaria (-4.3%).

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Methodological note:
Contact: Alena Hellerová, phone (+420) 274052921, e -mail: alena.hellerova@csu.gov.cz
Data source: CZSO direct survey in enterprises
End of data collection: 29 September 2010
End of data processing: 4 October 2010
Data for August 2010 are preliminary; final data for all months of 2010 will be available in June 2011 at the latest. Base and y-o-y indices from 2000 and 2001 are available in time series
( /sales_indices_monthly_retail_trade_hotels_and_restaurants_time_series ).