Retail Trade - October 2006

In October, seasonally adjusted sales in ‘retail trade except of motor vehicles and motorcycles’ increased by 0.7% month-on-month at constant prices. Not seasonally adjusted sales grew by 7.9% year-on-year, while sale of non-food goods recorded the highest growth in the whole period of the survey, i.e. since 1997. The biggest contribution to the growth of total sales had specialised stores with other non-food goods, stores with household goods and non-specialised stores with food, beverages and tobacco predominating.
Seasonally adjusted retail sales (CZ-NACE 52) grew by 0.7% month-on-month at constant prices in October, of which sale of non-food goods by 0.4%, sale of food, beverages and tobacco by 1.0%. The trend component, similarly as in the previous two months, was up by 0.3%, rounding to two decimal places there has not been a drop of dynamics recorded for the first time during in this year (Table 1).

Seasonally adjusted sales increased by 5.5% year-on-year at constant prices. Not seasonally adjusted sales grew by 7.9% (October 2006 had two working days more than October 2005). Sales of non-food-goods recorded a growth of 10.5%, which was the highest growth in the whole period of the survey, i.e. since 1997; sales of food, beverages and tobacco increased more slowly (4.3%). Consumers probably started to think about Christmas, because goods that sold well were suitable as Christmas presents.

The following contributed most to the total growth in October: specialised stores with other non-food goods, which cover for e.g. sports equipment, toys, jewellery, books, cameras etc. The second biggest contribution to the growth had electrical household appliances, hardware, furniture and other household goods and non-specialised stores with food, beverages and tobacco predominating. The fastest growth occurred in stores with textiles, clothing and footwear; drop of 5.4% was recorded only in sale of second-hand goods, which is in terms of volume insignificant (Table 3).


Broken down by size group of enterprises, the biggest sale growth occurred in enterprises with 50 to 99 employees and with 100+ employees (+12.4% and +9.0%, respectively). Enterprises in other size groups reported a growth from 6.4% to 6.7%.

The price deflator for retail sales (compared to the corresponding period of previous year) was 99.9%. Prices grew in stores selling food, beverages and tobacco, in both specialised and non-specialised (+1.3% and +0.8%, respectively), in specialised stores with pharmaceutical and medical goods, cosmetic and toilet articles (+1.9%), with other non-food goods (+0.8%). The biggest drop in prices was recorded for specialised stores with textiles, clothing and footwear (-5.6%).

In October, according to data released by Eurostat, seasonally adjusted constant price retail sales in the EU25 were up by 0.2% month-on-month and by 2.2% year-on-year (working days adjusted). Among member states for which data were available, year-on-year increases in retail sales were observed in Latvia (+26.4%), Estonia (+17.8%), Sweden (+9.3%), Poland (+9.1%), Slovakia (+8.0%), Lithuania (+5.5%), Finland (+4.4%), the United Kingdom (+3.7%), Spain (+3.0%), France (+2.9%), Slovenia (+1.5%), Denmark (+0.8%), Luxembourg (+0.5%), and Austria (+0.4%). On the contrary fall was registered in Belgium (-2.3%) and Germany (-0.7%) and Portugal (-0.2%).
In the automotive segment (CZ-NACE 50) not seasonally adjusted sales increased by 10.1% year-on-year at constant prices; sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles increased by 11.5% and sale of automotive fuel by 7.9%.

In retail trade incl. the automotive segment (CZ-NACE 52+50) , seasonally adjusted sales at constant prices dropped by 0.1% month-on-month and not seasonally adjusted sales grew by 8.6% year-on-year.

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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: 7 December 2006
End of data processing: 12 December 2006
The data for October 2006 are preliminary, final data for all months of 2006 will be known in June 2007 at the latest.
Monthly data since 1997 are available as time series ( /produkty/slu_cr