Retail Trade - May 2005

Seasonally adjusted retail sales (CZ-NACE 52) grew by 0.6% m-o-m at constant prices. The trend component rose by 0.4% m-o-m, which corresponded to the growth recorded in last three months (Table 1).

Graph 1


Sales not seasonally adjusted grew by 5.2% -y-o-y at constant prices, which was the highest increase since November 2004. Sale of food, beverages and tobacco was up by 5.1% and sale of non-food goods by 5.3%. The growth was affected, inter alia, by a higher number of working days (+1); seasonally and working days adjusted sales were up by 4.1% in total.

Sales, not seasonally adjusted, in the individual assortment types of stores:

- non-specialised stores: sales grew by 4.9% both in stores with food, beverages or tobacco predominating and in stores with non-food goods predominating;

- specialised stores: sales grew in all size groups of stores and increased by 5.5% in total. On food, beverages and tobacco was spent by 6.2% more y-o-y and on non-food goods by 5.4% more;

- consumers’ demand fuelled by cuts in prices raised sales in stores with textiles, clothing and footwear (+18.5%), and high demand was for buying pharmaceutical and medical goods, cosmetic and toilet articles (+12.5%). Sales grew also in the remaining specialised stores selling electronics, electrical appliances, hardware, furniture and other household goods (+4.2%) and books, newspapers and stationery and other retail sale in specialised stores (+0.6%);

- as to the less significant types of sale, above the May 2004 level was sale via mail order houses (+10.2%), sale via stalls and markets and other non-store retail sale (+3.4%) and sale of second-hand goods in stores (+2.9%).

In May, according to Eurostat estimates, seasonally adjusted retail sales in the EU25 were up by 0.8% m-o-m and 2.1% y-o-y (working days adjusted). Among member states for which data were available, y-o-y increases in sales were observed in Lithuania (+12.6%), Denmark (+10.3%), Slovakia (+9.2%), Finland (+6.6%), Slovenia (+5.6%), Sweden (+4.8%), Germany (+3.7%), Belgium (+2.9%), Portugal (+2.6%), Spain (+2.2%), France (+1.5%), and the United Kingdom (+1.3%). Decreases were reported for Luxembourg (-3.5%) and Poland (-0.7%).

Not seasonally adjusted sales in the automotive segment (CZ-NACE 50) grew by 13.1% y-o-y at constant prices, which was the second highest increase from the beginning of the year due to higher sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles (+14.6%) and sale of fuel (+10.6%).

In retail trade incl. the automotive segment (CZ-NACE 52+50) , seasonally adjusted sales rose by 0.3% m-o-m at constant prices and seasonally not adjusted sales grew by 7.7% y-o-y.

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

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: 8 July 2005
End of data processing: 13 July 2005
The data are preliminary; revised data for all months of 2005 will be known in June 2006.
Monthly data since 1997 are available as time series ( /slu_ts ).