Retail Trade - November 2009

In November, seasonally adjusted (SA) sales in retail trade including automotive segment decreased month-on-month by 2.9% at constant prices, which was the biggest drop since March 2008, and by 6.1% in the year-on-year comparison. A 4.9% y-o-y drop of non-adjusted sales was contributed to mainly by the sale of motor vehicles and the non-food goods.
With seasonal, calendar and working day adjustment sales in retail trade including automotive segment decreased in November by 2.9%, at constant prices, m-o-m, which was the biggest drop since March 2008, and in the year on year comparison by 6.1% (with only WDA –6.7% due to more working days (+1) than in November 2008). Seasonally non-adjusted sales were 4.9% down, y-o-y, which was approximately the same as the average for the previous three months, and 0.7 p.p. up, compared to the last 12 months.
Seasonally adjusted sales in sale and repair of motor vehicles (CZ-NACE 45) decreased by 5.2% at constant prices in the month-on-month comparison and by 13.1%, y-o-y. Seasonally non-adjusted sales dropped, y-o-y, by 11.0%, almost like the average for the last 12 months, of which sales from the sale of motor vehicles decreased by 10.4% and from repair by 14.3%.
In retail sale including sale of automotive fuel (CZ-NACE 47) seasonally adjusted sales dropped, m-o-m, by 2.0%, which was the biggest drop since March 2008. This drop came mainly from the sale of automotive fuel (-0.9%), textiles and goods in non-specialized stores with food, beverages and tobacco predominating (-0.4% both). In the year-on-year comparison sales fell by 3.2% (with only WDA –3.6%), seasonally non-adjusted sales fell by 2.3%. Like in the previous month sales from the sale of the non-food goods dropped by 4.2%, by contrast, sales from the sale of food, beverages and tobacco were 1.1% up.

Among observed items the most important impact on total drop came from the sale of household products in specialized stores (sales dropped by 9.3%), sale of automotive fuel (-3.3%) and clothing and footwear (-7.4%). By contrast, sales from the sale of pharmaceutical and medical goods, cosmetic and toilet articles increased by 4.7% and in non-specialized stores with food, beverages and tobacco predominating including big chain stores sales were 1.8% up. A moderate increase was reported also for the sale of information and communication equipment (+0.7%) and the sale via the Internet or mail order houses (+0.4%).

The price deflator related to the corresponding period in 2008 was 97.9%. The biggest price decrease was recorded in the sale of information and communication equipment (-7.5%), second-hand goods (-5.9%) and the goods in non-specialized stores (-3.7%). In contrast, growing were e.g. prices of pharmaceutical and medical goods (+2.6%).

In November, according to data released by Eurostat, SA retail sales (CZ-NACE 47) in the EU27 decreased month-on-month by 0.8% at constant prices and, working day adjusted sales dropped by 2.1%, year-on-year. The biggest drops of sales were reported for Latvia (-30.2%), Lithuania (-27.8%) and Estonia (-21.2%). The fastest growths were reported for Poland (+4.6%) and Belgium (+3.7%) while no changes were reported for Finland.

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Methodological note:
Contact: Alena Hellerová, tel. (+420) 274052921, e-ma il: alena.hellerova@csu.gov.cz
Data source: CZSO direct survey in enterprises
End of data collection: 5 January 2010
End of data processing: 7 January 2010
The data for November 2009 are preliminary, final data for all months of 2009 will be available in June 2010 at the latest. Monthly data since 2000 (y-o-y indices since 2001) are available in time series
( /sales_indices_monthly_retail_trade_hotels_and_restaurants_time_series ).