Retail Trade - July 2004
Lower number of working days affected growing sales in retail trade
Publication Date: 15. 09. 2004
Product Code: r-9101-04
Month-on-month comparison:
In July 2004, compared with June, seasonally adjusted constant price retail sales incl. the automotive segment grew by 1.3%. Higher sales in the automotive segment (+3.5%) contributed to that significantly. Sale of other goods than food grew by 0.7%, sale of food, beverages and tobacco dropped by 0.3%.
Year-on-year comparison :
Seasonally adjusted constant price retail sales incl. the automotive segment grew by 3.8%, of which by 7.0% in the automotive segment and by 2.3% in the remaining retail trade. The most considerable growth was recorded for sale of textiles, clothing and footwear (+14.8%), whereas maintenance and repair of motor vehicles and other retail sale of non-food goods in specialized stores saw decreases (-2.5% both).
Sales in both main CZ-NACE divisions not seasonally adjusted reached the same growth (both +0.3% in total). The fact that only enterprises with 100 or more employees raised their sales (+6.3%), while enterprises in other size groups sold less (-3.3% to -4.3%), could be affected, inter alia , by the number of working days, which was by 3 days lower, because large enterprises are usually selling also on holidays.
Sales in the automotive segment were by 0.4% higher than in July 2003, which was by 0.6 percentage points more in comparison to the average index from the beginning of the year. The growth was contributed to by sale of automotive fuel (+5.8%), whereas sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles dropped (-3.1%).
Sales in retail trade (excl. the automotive segment) grew least since the beginning of the year (+0.3%), of which food-selling stores and stores selling other goods than food accounted for increases of 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively. Sales in the individual assortment types of stores developed as follows:
- sales in non-specialised stores increased by 0.4%, of which in stores selling predominantly other goods than food by 0.9% and in stores with food, beverages or tobacco predominating by 0.3%;
- sales in specialised stores with other goods than food stagnated, sales in stores with food, beverages and tobacco fell by 0.9%;
- stagnating sale of other goods than food in specialised stores was particularly affected by a decrease in sale of books, newspapers and stationery and other retail sale in specialised stores (-5.6%); the latter includes, e.g., clocks, jewellery, flowers, as well as solid and gaseous fuels and computers. Sales in the other specialised stores rose: sale of textiles, clothing and footwear by 15.7%; household equipment and appliances (electronics, electrical appliances, hardware, furniture and other household goods) by 4.9%; and pharmaceutical and medical goods, cosmetic and toilet articles by 2.2%;
- sale via stalls and markets and other non-store retail sale , which is classified neither in food nor in non-food goods, raised their sales by 12.6%.
July 2004 in the Czech Republic was exceptional with respect to y-o-y comparison, for it had 3 working days fewer than July 2003 , which showed itself in diverse development of data seasonally adjusted and data not seasonally adjusted. The not seasonally adjusted data suggest a low growth of sales, nevertheless the seasonally adjusted data make apparent the continuing long-term upward trend (the trend component rose by 0.5% m-o-m). The lower number of working days affected most sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles and also sale of food, pharmaceutical and medical goods, cosmetic and toilet articles, and household equipment and appliances in specialised stores. On the other hand, the different number of working days had actually no impact on sale of automotive fuel and sale in non-specialised stores with food, beverages and tobacco predominating.
International comparison :
According to estimates of Eurostat, seasonally adjusted retail sales excl. the automotive segment in the EU25 were up by 0.1% m-o-m; not seasonally adjusted sales increased by 2.6% y-o-y.
Note :
Contact: Alena Hellerová, phone (+420) 274 052 921, e-mail: ahellerova@gw.czso.cz
Data source: CZSO direct survey in enterprises
End of data collection: 6 September 2004
End of data processing: 10 September 2004
Related publication: 9106-04 Monthly Survey in Retail Trade, Hotels and Restaurants ( https://csu.gov.cz )
The data are preliminary; revised data for July 2004 will be released in following two monthly News Releases; final data for each month of the year 2004 will be known in June 2005.