Slight growth for retail trade

Turnover in the retail sector in August 2008 was just over 1 percent up on the same month last year. Turnover was negatively affected by the less favourable shopping-day pattern for August in 2008 than in 2007. After correction for this, the increase came to nearly 3 percent. Articles sold by retailers cost 2.5 percent more. Corrected for differences in the shopping-day pattern, the volume of sales increased slightly compared with the same month one year ago.

Shops in the food sector generated a turnover growth of more than 4 percent in August. Prices rose by just over 5 percent. Turnover in the non-food sector rose by 0.3 percent compared with August 2007. In this sector prices rose by nearly 1 percent. Within non-food, stores selling household items had a substantially higher turnover than twelve months previously: their turnover rose by nearly 8 percent.

Accounting for 59 percent, non-food shops contributed most to retail turnover in 2007. Shops selling food products, drinks and tobacco contributed 36 percent. Mail-order companies and street market retailers accounted for a modest 5 percent of total retail turnover.

Retail turnover