Retail Trade - December 2009

In December, seasonally adjusted (SA) sales in retail trade including automotive segment increased month-on-month by 0.9% at constant prices and dropped by 3.9% in the year-on-year comparison. A 1.9% y-o-y drop of non-adjusted sales was contributed to mainly by the sale of motor vehicles. Over the whole year sales dropped by 4.3%.
With seasonal, calendar and working day adjustment sales in retail trade including automotive segment increased in December by 0.9%, at constant prices, m-o-m, and dropped by 3.9% in the year on year comparison (with only WDA –3.7%). Seasonally non-adjusted sales were 1.9% down, (December 2009 had one working day more than December 2008).
Seasonally adjusted sales in sale and repair of motor vehicles (CZ-NACE 45) decreased by 1.3% at constant prices in the month-on-month comparison and by 13.2%, y-o-y. Seasonally non-adjusted sales dropped, y-o-y, by 11.0%, of which sales from the sale of motor vehicles decreased by 12.1% and from repair by 5.4%.
In retail sale including sale of automotive fuel (CZ-NACE 47) seasonally adjusted sales increased, m-o-m, by 1.8% at constant prices, and, in the year-on-year comparison, stagnated. Seasonally non-adjusted sales increased by 1.3%, y-o-y, of which sales from the sale of food, beverages and tobacco by 3.0% and from the sale of fuel by 2.3%. Sales from the sale of the non-food goods remained unchanged after 8 months of the y-o-y drop.

The y-o-y growth of sales owed especially to non-specialized stores with food predominating and to the sale via the Internet or mail order houses. The contribution of first type of stores came from its marked share in total sales while their sales growth reached only 3.7%; the second type of stores scored only due to faster growth rate of their sales (+20.8%) since their share in retail trade is so far intangible. Better results than in December 2008 were reported for traders in textiles and footwear (growth by 7.3%), information and communication equipment (growth by 3.8%) and culture and recreation products (growth by 0.6%). By contrast, a decrease was reported for household products in specialized stores (e.g. electrical household appliances, furniture, and related products, hardware, paints and glass), for food and pharmaceutical and medical goods.

The price deflator related to the corresponding period in 2008 was 98.8%. The biggest price decrease was recorded in the sale of information and communication equipment (-8.5%), second-hand goods (-5.8%), goods sold via the Internet or mail order houses (-2.7%). By contrast, the biggest growth was reported for prices of fuel (+9.0%) and pharmaceutical and medical goods (+2.8%).

In December, according to data released by Eurostat, SA retail sales (CZ-NACE 47) in the EU27 decreased month-on-month by 0.1% at constant prices and, working day adjusted sales dropped by 1.0%, year-on-year. The biggest drops of sales were reported for Latvia (-30.2%), Lithuania (-27.2%) and Estonia (-16.4%). The fastest growth rates were reported for Poland (+4.6%), Sweden (+3.1%) and Austria (+2.7%).

Over the whole year 2009 the sales in retail trade including automotive segment decreased, y-o-y, by 4.3% at constant prices while not even in a single month did they reached the level of the previous year. The biggest influence on the total development showed the permanent drop in sale and repair of motor vehicles.

In automotive segment (CZ-NACE 45) sales dropped, y-o-y, by 11.1% including sale of motor vehicles (-11.3%) and repair (-10.2%). In all months in 2009 sales remained below the level of comparable period in 2008.

In retail trade including the sale of fuel (CZ-NACE 47) a 1.4% drop of sales was registered, y-o-y, while higher level compared to 2008 was reached only in January, March, April and December. Sales from the sale of the non-food goods dropped by 2.9%, from the sale of fuel by 1.7%. By contrast, sales from the sale of food increased by 0.9%. The average price deflator for 2009 was 95.9%. Prices in retail sale of food dropped by 2.6%, of the non-food goods by 1.6% and fuel, despite big price growth in December, by 15.1%.

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Methodological note:
Contact: Alena Hellerová, tel. (+420) 274052921, e-mail: alena.hellerova@csu.gov.cz
Data source: CZSO direct survey in enterprises
End of data collection: 4 February 2010
End of data processing: 9 February 2010
The data for December 2009 are preliminary, final data for all months of 2009 will be available in June 2010 at the latest. Monthly data since 2000 (y-o-y indices since 2001) are available in time series
( /sales_indices_monthly_retail_trade_hotels_and_restaurants_time_series ).