Leadership

Volume of retail sales falls 7.5pc in December

09.02.2010
The volume of retail sales fell by 7.5pc in December 2009 compared to the same month in 2008, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) revealed today.

The figures, which cover the crucial Christmas trading period, show that the signs of stabiliation in retail sales which emerged for the month of November continued into December.

December even saw a monthly rise of 0.4pc in retail sales volumes, compared to November.

However, the figures don’t look so hot when motor trade sales are stripped out, with the volume of retail sales in December decreasing by 6.7pc year-on-year and posting a monthly decline of -0.9pc.

Retail sales values

Meanwhile, the value of retail sales fell by 12.5pc in December 2009 compared to December 2008, with no change in the month.

However, if motor trades are excluded, the year-on-year decrease in December was 11.6pc, with a monthly decline of -1.5pc.

Motor trades hit
All sectors showed year-on-year declines in both the value and volume indices in December, the CSO said, with the most significant volume declines in the motor trade, which was down 15.1pc, and non-specialised stores (which includes supermarkets), with volumes there down 3.5pc.

Final quarter of 2009
Provisional estimates are also now available for the final quarter of 2009 and these show that the volume of retail sales declined by 8.2pc year-on-year in the fourth quarter, with the value of retail sales declining by 13.1pc.

Meanwhile, there was a quarter-on-quarter increase of 1.6pc in the volume of retail sales and there was a quarterly decline of 0.6pc in value terms, the CSO said.