Retail Trade - September 2007

In September, seasonally adjusted sales in retail trade except of automotive segment increased by 0.9%, month-on-month, at constant prices and by 8.4%, year-on-year. In contract, sales in automotive segment dropped, m-o-m, by 1.6% and in the year on year comparison they increased by 4.0%. Not seasonally adjusted sales in retail trade increased by 5.9% and in automotive segment by 1.0%. Seasonally adjusted sales in hotels and restaurants fell by 0.8% in September, m-o-m, not seasonally adjusted sales dropped by 1.9%, year-on-year.
Seasonally adjusted sales in retail trade (CZ-NACE 52) increased by 0.9% month-on-month at constant prices (the second highest increase in 2007), of which food, beverages and tobacco by 1.3% and non-food goods by 0.7%. The m-o-m growth of the trend component maintained its long-term stability and stood at 0.5% like in the previous five months. (Table 1).

Graph 1
Year-on-year, after seasonal and working day adjustments sales in retail trade increased by 8.4% at constant prices, with only working day adjustment they increased by 8.5%. Considering lower number of working days (one working day less in 2007) and especially lower number of Fridays which are the strongest sales days for all types of goods, not seasonally adjusted sales grew only by 5.9% which was the lowest growth y-o-y in 2007. The lowest sales growth was recorded for non-food goods as well as for food, beverages and tobacco (7.2% and 3.8%, respectively).

Over 25% contribution to the total growth had non-specialised stores with food, beverages and tobacco predominating and also specialised stores with electronics, electrical household appliances, construction materials, furniture and household articles. The fastest sale growth occurred in stores with textiles, clothing and footwear, in stores with household articles. Specialized stores with food, beverages and tobacco, recorded a drop in sales for the first time this year. (Table 3)

Broken down by size group of enterprises the biggest growth of sales occurred in enterprises with 50 to 99 employees (+11.0%). Enterprises with 100+ employees reported a growth by 8.7%, with 20 to 49 employees by 4.9% and with 0 to 19 employees by 3.1%.

The price deflator (related to the corresponding period of the previous year) was 101.7%. The biggest price increase was recorded in specialised stores with food, beverages and tobacco (by 7.1%) and in non-specialised stores with food, beverages and tobacco predominating (+5.7%). In respect of about one fifth share of food, beverages and tobacco in non-specialized stores with non-food goods predominating prices increased more than in the previous months (by 1.7%). Conversely, prices of non-food goods continued to drop and most in stores with other non-food goods (by 2.2%) which contribute significantly to total sales, further in sale via mail order houses (by 1.3%), in stores with second-hand goods (by 1.0%), in stores with household articles (by 0.9%) and stores with textiles, clothing and footwear (by 0.1%).

In September 2007, according to data released by Eurostat, seasonally adjusted constant price retail sales in the EU27 increased by 0.4% month-on-month and by 3.5% year-on-year (working days adjusted). Among member states for which data were available, year-on-year sale increases were recorded in Latvia (+17.5%), Poland (+13.3%), Lithuania (+12.7%), Sweden (+9.8%), Estonia (+8.5%), Finland (+6.4%), the United Kingdom (+6.0%), Slovenia (+5.1%), Denmark (+4.1%), Belgium (+3.4%), France (+2.5%), Bulgaria (+2.1%), Spain (+2.0%), Slovakia (+1.9%), Austria (+1.5%), Germany (+1.4%) and in Luxembourg (+1.1%). Prices dropped in Portugal (-0.9%).
In the automotive segment (CZ-NACE 50), in September, a rapid slow-down of highly dynamic growth was recorded when seasonally adjusted sales dropped by 1.6% month-on-month at constant price and in the year-on-year comparison they increased by 4.0%. Not seasonally adjusted sales increased year-on-year by only 1.0% of which in sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles by 1.6% while the sale of automotive fuel dropped by 0.1%.

In retail trade incl. the automotive segment (CZ-NACE 52 + 50), seasonally adjusted sales at constant prices increased by only 0.1% month-on-month and year on year, due to higher share of rapidly growing sales in retail trade the sales increased by 7.0%. Not seasonally adjusted sales grew by only 4.3% year-on-year.

In hotels and restaurants (CZ-NACE 55) seasonally adjusted sales dropped in September by 0.8% month-on-month and not seasonally adjusted sales dropped by 1.9%, year on year which was equally contributed to by hotels and camping sites and by restaurants, bars and canteens. In both segments the year-on-year drop was contributed to by most important groups in terms of size, i.e. enterprises with 100+ employees in hotels and camping sizes and enterprises with 0-19 employees in restaurants, bars and canteens (drop by 3.2% and 3.5%, respectively).

Analysis - Sales in retail trade, hotels and restaurants in the 3rd 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: 2 November 2007
End of data processing: 7 November 2007
The data for September 2007 are preliminary; final data for all months of 2007 will be available in June 2008 at the latest. Monthly data since 1997 are available in time series ( /sales_indices_monthly_retail_trade_hotels_and_restaurants_time_series )