Retail turnover 5.5 percent down

• Downturn non-food sector continues
• Marginal growth food sector

According to the latest figures released by Statistics Netherlands, retail trade turnover in the third quarter of 2009 was 5.5 percent down on the same quarter one year previously. Prices were 1.0 percent lower, turnover volume shrank by 4.5 percent.

Retail turnover was lower than in the first two quarters of this year.

Turnover in the non-food sector dropped by nearly 8 percent, as a result of declining sales, a similar pattern emerged in the three preceding quarters. The most substantial downturn (nearly 13 percent) was recorded for consumer electronics shops and home furnishing retailers (more than 10 percent). Chemists were the only non-food retailers to realise positive results. They achieved a turnover growth of just under 3 percent.

Food, drinks and tobacco shops generated a marginal turnover growth in the third quarter, entirely realised by supermarkets. In the third quarter, they saw turnover grow by more than 1 percent relative to the third quarter of 2008. Turnover generated by specialised food shops dropped by more than 4 percent.

Just as in the previous three quarters, petrol stations faced loss of turnover in the third quarter of 2009, predominantly caused by lower fuel prices.