Sales in retail trade, hotels and restaurants - 4. quarter of 2007

Retail trade including the automotive segment

In Q4 2007, seasonally adjusted sales in retail trade including the automotive segment grew by 0.8% quarter-on-quarter at constant prices; increase in retail trade was 0.3% and in automotive segment 1.8%. Growth slowed down at the end of the year. Year-on-year sales increased by 6.2% in total, in the automotive segment by 9.0% and in retail trade by 4.9%.
Not seasonally adjusted sales (Q4 2007 had 1 working day more than Q4 2006) in retail trade including the automotive segment increased by 6.8% year-on-year at constant prices; growth in retail trade was 5.2% and in the automotive segment 10.4%.

● Automotive segment (CZ-NACE 50)

The year-on-year sales in the automotive segment maintained high rate of growth. Dynamics were determined by sale of motor vehicles (+14.2% y-o-y in Q4), slower rate was registered in retail sale of automotive fuel (+4.6%). Statistical figures of the Automotive Industry Association suggest that the growth of first car registrations slowed down in Q4 2007 and reached 5.7%. The slowdown was mainly due to lower number of second-hand car registrations (-4.4%), new car registrations were up by 17.2% in Q4 2007. The most new car registrations were recorded in December when they grew by 22.7%.

● Retail trade (CZ-NACE 52)

The year-on-year growth of not seasonally adjusted sales in retail trade except of motor vehicles and motorcycles slowed down in comparison to all the previous quarters of the year; increase dropped to 5.2% and December saw the lowest growth in the year (+3.4%). Sales in Q4 2007 grew the most in enterprises with 50–99 employees (+10.1%) and the least in large enterprises 100+ employees (+4.0%). Despite that the latter had the highest share in total sales (44.4%).
Specialised stores took the largest part of sales increase in retail trade. Compared to the previous quarter, their share in sales was by 13.4 p.p. higher. Sale of furniture, electrical appliances and other household goods and sale of other non-food goods have a long-term high share in sales increases. In Q4 2007 sale of pharmaceutical and medical goods, cosmetic and toilet articles gained in importance. Conversely, demand for food, beverages and tobacco decreased and the sale dropped for the first time in 2007.

Sale in non-specialised stores with food, beverages and tobacco predominating increased only in size groups of enterprises with 0–19 employees and in large chain stores with 100+ employees (by 1.1% both); sale in size groups 20–49 and 50–99 employees fell (by 3.0% and 4.0% respectively).


Hotels and restaurants (CZ-NACE 55)

In Q4 2007 seasonally adjusted sales in hotels and restaurants increased by 0.5% quarter-on-quarter at constant prices and the same applied to the trend component.
Not seasonally adjusted sales in hotels and restaurants grew by 1.3% year-on-year. November was the weakest month in Q4 where sales fell by 1.1%. In December the second highest growth in 2007 was observed (+3.3%). Hotels recorded a better figure (+4.4% year-on-year), restaurants only 0.3%.

In Q4 2007 the sales growth in hotels and restaurants was hampered by small enterprises with 0–19 employees which had a 54% share in total sales; sales in these enterprises fell by 1.8% year-on-year. Enterprises with 100+ employees had a share of 24% in total sales and boosted the growth as their sales increased by 5.5%.
Retail trade except of motor vehicles and motorcycles maintained high rates of growth for the second year. Although annual growth by 6.8% in 2007 was the highest since 1997, the rate started to slacken towards the end of the year. Sales increased the most in Q1 (+8.7%) and the least in Q4 (+5.2%). Specialised stores with furniture, electrical appliances, electronics and ironware and stores with other non-food goods (growth by 27.5% and 25.1% respectively) had the biggest share in sales increase. Conversely, stores with food, beverages and tobacco had the weakest share (1.7%) and their sales started to decrease in September.

Sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles and retail of automotive fuel grew by 9.6% year-on-year in 2007; dynamics were determined by sale of motor vehicles, which in October increased by record-breaking 20.3% and in the year 2007 by 13.7%. Also maintenance and repair of motor vehicles grew rapidly (+8.7%); sale of automotive fuel increased by 4.9%.

The trend of growth in hotels and restaurants continued in 2007. The growth was started in mid 2006 after a two-year decrease. In the year 2007 sales did not grow quite evenly; the biggest growth was recorded in Q1 2007 (+2.6%) with the highest increase at all in February (+3.5%), the growth decreased in the next period. Although annual development in both segments was similar to each other, there were differences in the first and second half of 2007. Restaurants reached better results in the first half of the year (growth of sales by 2.6%) and hotels in the second (+2.5%).