Retail Trade - February 2007

In February, seasonally adjusted sales in ‘retail trade except of motor vehicles and motorcycles’ grew by 1.5% month-on-month at constant prices. The year-on-year increase was 7.6%; and 9.5% (not seasonally adjusted), which was an all-time high. Nearly the same growth (9.4%) was recorded for NSA sales in the automotive segment. The increase of sales in hotels and restaurants, which started in November 2006, continued in February (3.4%).
Seasonally adjusted sales in retail trade (CZ-NACE 52) at constant prices increased by 1.5% month-on-month in February, of which food, beverages and tobacco grew by 2.2% and non-food goods by 1.0%. The trend component grew by 0.6%, like in the previous four months (Table 1).

Graph 1
Seasonally adjusted sales in retail trade increased by 7.6% year-on-year at constant prices. Not seasonally adjusted sales grew by 9.5%, which is the highest figure since 1997 when the retail trade survey was commenced. Record breaking (or the second highest) sale increases were recorded for many groups of goods, e.g. 12.2% for non-food goods total, of which 23.3% for electronics, construction materials, furniture, gardening articles and other household goods. Sales of food, beverages and tobacco rose by 5.8%.

Specialised stores with non-food goods contributed the most to the total growth in February (70%); the biggest share in the growth of total sales had the above-mentioned stores with electronics, construction materials, etc. (approximately 29%). Sales in this type of stores were boosted, among other things, by extraordinary favourable weather conditions for construction work. The higher consumer demand for pharmaceutical and medical goods, cosmetic and toilet articles, which started in January, continued (sales up by 10.4%), see Table 3.

Broken down by size group of enterprises, the biggest growth of sales occurred in enterprises with 50 to 99 employees (+17.3%). Enterprises with 100+ employees reported an increase of 11.4%, enterprises with 20 to 49 employees 10.5% and enterprises with 0 to 19 employees 6.6%.

The total deflator (compared to the corresponding period of previous year) was 100.1%. Prices were up in stores with food, beverages and tobacco, in both specialised and non-specialised (+3.1% and +1.7%, respectively), in stores with pharmaceutical and medical goods, cosmetic and toilet articles (+1.7%), and in retail sale not in stores (except sale via mail order houses) (+0.8%). The highest decreases were registered in stores with textiles, clothing and footwear (-2.7%), then in stores selling other non-food goods and second-hand goods (both -2.6%).

In February, according to data released by Eurostat, seasonally adjusted constant price retail sales in the EU27 were up by 0.5% month-on-month and up by 2.8% year-on-year (working days adjusted). Among member states for which data were available, year-on-year sale increases were recorded in Latvia (+28.8%), Estonia (+17.8%), Poland (+13.0%), Lithuania (+10.4%), Bulgaria (+10.2%), Sweden (+6.9%), Finland (+6.6%), the United Kingdom (+4.9%), Slovakia (+4.7%), Spain (+3.9%), Luxembourg (+2.7%), Austria (+2.4%) and Belgium (+1.1%). Prices remained unchanged in Denmark and dropped in Portugal (-2.2%) and Germany (-1.7%)
In the automotive segment (CZ-NACE 50), not seasonally adjusted sales rose by 9.4% year-on-year at constant prices; sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles increased by 10.0% and sale of automotive fuel by 8.2%.

In retail trade incl. the automotive segment (CZ-NACE 52+50), seasonally adjusted sales at constant prices increased by 0.6% month-on-month and not seasonally adjusted sales by 9.4% year-on-year.

The growth of sales in hotels and restaurants (CZ-NACE 55) that began in November 2006 continued in February 2007 too. Not seasonally adjusted sales increased by 3.4% year-on-year at constant prices, of which by 3.7% in hotels and by 3.3% in restaurants, bars and canteens. The growth in hotels was predominantly due to large enterprises operating hotels (+5.3%). Among restaurants, bars and canteens, restaurants achieved the best result (+3.8%).

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Note
1) The whole time series is seasonally adjusted every month; indices in the graph are changed retroactively.

Contact: Alena Hellerová, tel. (+420) 274052921, e-mail: alena.hellerova@csu.gov.cz
Data source: CZSO direct survey in enterprises
End of data collection: 6 April 2007
End of data processing: 11 April 2007
The data for February 2007 are preliminary; final data for all months of 2007 will be available in June 2008 at he latest.
Monthly data since 1997 are available in time series ( /slu_ts )