Retail sales down but not out

TALLINN - Retailers in Estonia suffered another month in a more than yearlong downward spiral as January sales dropped 10 percent against year earlier figures, reports news agency LETA. The positive news is that the drop in activity at the check-out counter is slowing. Already from December the trend has shown improvement.

In January, retail sales of goods totaled 4 billion kroons (256.4 million euros). Compared to January 2009, sales fell in most product categories, except for food, beverages and tobacco in specialized stores, and for sales of pharmaceutical goods and cosmetics. The low reference base in 2009 contributed to the sales growth in these stores.
The decrease was highest with manufactured goods, where sales decreased by 15 percent compared to January 2009. The decrease in stores selling manufactured goods has significantly slowed, compared to recent months. Retail sales have recovered remarkably in other specialized stores, such as those selling computers and accessories, photography supplies, books, sports equipment, games and toys, etc. In these stores sales dropped 20 percent during the year. In December, this number was 35 percent.

The decrease in sales at non-specialized stores, with industrial goods predominating, and stores selling household goods and appliances, hardware and building materials slowed to some extent. The slowdown in retail sales of food that started in December continued into January. Compared to January of the previous year, sales for food retailers fell 6 percent.

Compared to the previous month, sales in retail trade outlets decreased 19 percent. This represents a normal pattern following the Christmas season and end-of-year sales. However, according to the seasonally and working-day adjusted data, retail sales increased by 3 percent compared to the previous month. In January revenue for retailers was 4.9 billion kroons, of which sale of goods accounted for about 85 percent. Compared to January 2009, sales revenue decreased 7 percent, at current prices. Compared to the previous month, this indicator sank by 16 percent.