Retail turnover up slightly

• Favourable shopping-day pattern pushes up turnover
• Decrease for non-food continued in August

Figures released by Statistics Netherlands show that retail turnover was nearly 1 percent higher in August 2012 than in the same month last year. Prices rose by 1.9 percent, while the volume of sales fell by 1 percent.

The favourable shopping-day pattern had a positive effect on turnover in August this year. After correction for this effect, turnover is nearly 2 percent lower, and the volume is around 4 percent lower.

Compared with August 2011, turnover in non-food shops was nearly 5 percent lower. The decrease in turnover in the first eight months of 2012 is now just under 4 percent. The largest drop in turnover was reported by shops selling home furnishings; their turnover was 13 percent down on August last year. Textile supermarkets and clothes shops, too, experienced large decreases in turnover. Chemists were the only shops that saw turnover increase.

For shops selling food, drink and tobacco turnover rose by 7 percent. After adjustment for the effects of shopping-days, however, this drops to only 2 percent. Prices in these shops rose by 1.5 percent, while the increase in volume was limited.

Turnover for mail order companies and internet retailers rose by 9 percent, for petrol stations it grew by nearly 4 percent.