In January the growth rate deceleration in retail trade continued

In January, the retail sales of goods of retail trade enterprises were 4.2 billion kroons, which is 404 million kroons more than in January 2007. The growth of retail sales which had stayed around 20% at the beginning of 2007 decelerated considerably at the end of the year. In December 2007 the annual growth in retail sales was 4%, in January 2008 it decelerated to 1%.

In grocery stores the sales increased 1% compared to the same period of the previous year, the growth was 2 percentage points less than in December. The deceleration of growth rate was influenced by a rapid growth in the prices of food products. Due to the large share, grocery stores covered almost 65% of the total increase in the sales of the retail trade enterprises. Retail sales in non-specialized stores selling industrial goods increase 10%, and retail sales of pharmaceutical goods and cosmetics increased 9% compared with the same period of the previous year. Growth in the sales of non-specialized stores selling industrial goods was caused by the discount sales of winter goods. In the biggest economic activity groups the decrease was in stores selling household goods and appliances, hardware and building materials, where sales decreased 5% compared with the same period of the previous year.

Compared to the previous month, the retail sales in retail trade enterprises decreased 24% in constant prices. This is a usual fall following the Christmas time and end-of-year sales.

In January the revenues from sales of retail trade enterprises were about 5 billion kroons, out of which retail sales of goods accounted for 85%. Compared to January 2007, the revenues from sales increased 11% in current prices, but compared to the previous month, this indicator decreased 22%.

Retail sales volume index of retail trade enterprises, January 2001 – January 2008
(corresponding month of previous year = 100)