Retail Trade - March 2007

In March, seasonally adjusted sales in ‘retail trade except of motor vehicles and motorcycles’ grew by 0.7% month-on-month at constant prices. The year-on-year increase was 8.8% and 9.6% (not seasonally adjusted). The biggest share in total sales had specialised stores with household goods, other non-food goods and non-specialised stores with food, beverages or tobacco predominating. The increase of sales in hotels and restaurants continued also in March (3.9%).
Seasonally adjusted sales in retail trade (CZ-NACE 52) at constant prices increased by 0.7% month-on-month in March, of which non-food goods by 1.0% and food, beverages and tobacco by 0.3%. The trend component grew by 0.7%, which approximately corresponded with the average growth in the last six months (Table 1).

Graph 1
Year-on-year, after seasonal and calendar adjustments, sales in retail trade increased by 8.8% at constant prices (March 2006 had one working day more than March 2007, after working and calendar day adjustments the growth was 10.1%). Not seasonally adjusted sales grew by 9.6%, of which non-food goods by 12.6% and food, beverages and tobacco by 5.6%. The growth of total sales was the second highest in the whole survey period.

The biggest contribution to the total growth in March had stores with electronics, electrical appliances, construction materials, furniture and other household goods. The second and third highest share in the growth had non-specialised stores with food, beverages or tobacco predominating and specialised stores with other non-food goods. The fastest growth of sales occurred in stores with household goods and in stores with textiles, clothing and footwear (22.2% and 21.1%) see Table 3.

Broken down by size group of enterprises, the biggest growth of sales occurred in enterprises with 50 to 99 employees (+17.9%). Enterprises with 20 to 49 employees reported an increase of 13.9%, enterprises with 100+ employees 10.8% and enterprises with 0 to 19 employees 6.9%.

The total deflator (compared to the corresponding period of previous year) was 100.4%. Prices were up in stores with food, beverages and tobacco, in both specialised and non-specialised (+4.0% and +3.1%, respectively), in stores with pharmaceutical and medical goods, cosmetic and toilet articles (+1.6%), in retail sale not in stores (except sale via mail order houses) (+1.0%) and in non-specialised stores with non-food goods predominating (+0.4%). Prices dropped in stores with other non-food goods (-2.8%), in stores with textiles, clothing and footwear and second-hand goods (both -2.0%), in sale via mail order houses (-1.9%) and in stores with household goods (-1.2%).

In March, according to data released by Eurostat, seasonally adjusted constant price retail sales in the EU27 were up by 0.6% month-on-month and by 3.8% year-on-year (working days adjusted). Among member states for which data were available, year-on-year sale increases were recorded in Latvia (+27.7%), Estonia (+24.1%), Lithuania (+15.9%), Bulgaria (+13,5%), Poland (+13.1%), Sweden (+9.5%), Finland (+9.2%), Slovenia (+9.0%), Luxembourg (+8.9%), Slovakia (+6.2%), Spain (+5.5%), the United Kingdom (+5.2%), France (+5.0%), Denmark (+4.0%), Portugal (+3.4%), Austria (+1.9%) and Belgium (+0.1%). Prices dropped in Germany (-0.7%).
In the automotive segment (CZ-NACE 50), not seasonally adjusted sales rose by 12.2% year-on-year at constant prices; sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles increased by 12.0% and sale of automotive fuel by 12.7%.

In retail trade incl. the automotive segment (CZ-NACE 52+50), seasonally adjusted sales at constant prices increased by 1.7% month-on-month and not seasonally adjusted sales by 10.5% year-on-year.

The growth of sales in hotels and restaurants (CZ-NACE 55) that began in November 2006 continued in March 2007 too. Not seasonally adjusted sales increased by 3.9% year-on-year at constant prices, with the same rate in both hotels and restaurants.

Analysis - Sales in retail trade, hotels and restaurants in the 1st quarter 2007

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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: 9 May 2007
End of data processing: 15 May 2007
The data for March 2007 are preliminary; final data for all months of 2007 will be available in June 2008 at he latest. In connection with the planned revision of 2006 data, data for January and February 2007 were processed again (additionally obtained questionnaires were included).
Monthly data since 1997 are available in time series ( /sales_indices_monthly_retail_trade_hotels_and_restaurants_time_series )