Retail Trade - March 2011

In March, sales in retail trade including automotive segment after seasonal, calendar and working day adjustment decreased at constant prices by 1.1%, month-on-month. Only working days adjusted (WDA) and calendar days adjusted sales increased by 2.0%, year-on-year. Y-o-y increase of non-adjusted sales by 2.1% was influenced mainly by sale and repair of motor vehicles and by non-food goods.
After seasonal adjustment sales in retail trade including sale and repair of motor vehicles decreased in March by 1.1%, at constant prices, m-o-m; only working and calendar days adjusted increased by 2.0%, year-on-year. The y-o-y growth of non-adjusted sales by 2.1% was contributed to (with the same number of working days in March 2010 and 2011) by sale and repair of motor vehicles (+2.4 p.p.) and non-food goods (+0.6 p.p.), while the opposite effect came from sale of automotive fuel (-0.8 p.p.) and food (-0.1 p.p.), see Table 2.
Seasonally adjusted sales in sale and repair of motor vehicles (CZ-NACE 45) decreased by 1.6% at constant prices, m-o-m, and in the year-on-year comparison, adjusted for working days, they increased by 7.3%, the same as non-adjusted. Sales for sale of motor vehicles and motorcycles (including spare parts) recorded the same growth; sales for maintenance and repair of motor vehicles increased by 7.5%.
In retail sale including sale of automotive fuel (CZ-NACE 47) seasonally adjusted sales at constant prices decreased by 0.8%, m-o-m; WDA decreased by 0.4%, y-o-y, the same as non-adjusted sales. Sales dropped in retail sale of automotive fuel in specialised stores by 7.8%, for food by 0.5%, while for non-food sales increased by 1.9%.

Sales in retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles (excluding retail sale of automotive fuel in specialised stores) increased by 0.9%. Sale of all main assortment groups of non-food goods increased: retail sale of cultural and recreation goods in specialised stores by 5.2%, retail sale of clothing, footwear and leather goods in specialised stores by 2.9%, retail sale of information and communication equipment in specialised stores by 2.5%, retail sale of other household equipment in specialised stores by 1.9%, the same as dispensing chemist, medical and orthopaedic goods, cosmetic and toilet articles in specialised stores. On the contrary, retail sale of food, beverages and tobacco dropped in both specialised and non-specialised stores (-5.6% and 0.1%, respectively). Significant sales growth continued in retail sale via mail order houses or via Internet by 11.6%. Decreasing trend was reported by retail sale via stalls and markets and other retail sale not in stores, stalls or markets (drop by 16.8% and 4.4%, respectively).

The price deflator related to the corresponding period of the previous year was 101.8%; it was influenced by continuing significant price increase in retail sale of automotive fuel in specialised stores (+12.6%). Markedly smaller price increase was reported for prices of goods sold in non-specialised stores with food, beverages or tobacco predominating (+2.8%), and dispensing chemist and medical and orthopaedic goods in specialised stores (+0.2%). The biggest price drops were reported for prices of information and communication equipment in specialised stores (-9.1%), and clothing, footwear and leather goods in specialised stores (-3.0%).

In March 2011, according to data released by Eurostat, seasonally adjusted retail sales (CZ-NACE 47) in the EU27 decreased by 0.8% at constant prices, month-on-month; working day adjusted sales decreased by 1.0%, year-on-year. The deepest fall of sales was reported for Spain (-9.6%), Denmark (-8.7%), and Portugal (-6.8%), while the fastest growth was in Poland (+6.9%), Luxembourg (+5.7%), and Lithuania (+5.2%).
For the entire Q1 2011, the sales in retail trade including automotive segment increased, y-o-y, by 4.9% at constant prices (in Q1 2011 there was 1 working day more); in that, sales in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles increased by 13.1% and in retail trade alone (including sale of automotive fuel) by 1.5%. Sales for non-food goods increased by 4.2%, for food by 0.8%, while for automotive fuel they dropped by 5.5%. The highest y-o-y sales growth was recorded in January, the lowest in March.

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Methodological note:
Responsible head: Marie Boušková, phone (+420) 274 052935, e-mail: marie.bouskova@csu.gov.cz
Contact person: Marcela Mašátová, phone (+420) 274052681, e-mail: marcela.masatova@csu.gov.cz
Method of data acquisition: direct surveys of the CZSO (SP1-12)
End of data collection: 28 April 2011
End of data processing: 3 May 2011
Data for March 2011 are preliminary; final data for all months of 2011 will be available in June 2012 at the latest.
Related publications: 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 ).
The next News Release will be published on 3 June 2011.