Monthly survey on retail trade 2021Sep

Published on 19 October 2021

Strong increases in retail trade in both September and 3rd quarter

Note: The trend in retail sales does not reflect that of total household consumption: the latter includes other items such as health care, education and rents.

In September, turnover in retail trade rose by 2.8% compared with the previous month after a -3.6 % downturn in August (in volume, adjusted for seasonal and working-day variations). It stood close to its pre-crisis level. The improvement was observed in September for both food sales and manufactured goods, which firmed by 2.3% and 3.0% respectively. Sales increased over the 3rd quarter, by +3.2 % compared with the previous one. Whereas food sales were stable ( 0,4 %), sales of manufactured goods increased sharply (+9,0 %).
The best performing sectors were press and stationery (15.2%), furniture (9.2%) and perfumes and toilet preparations (4.8%). Only sales of automotive equipment were down this month (-1.2%).
In terms of distribution channels, sales of small retailers were stable, ticking down by 0.2% while those of large general retailers rose by 3.1%. Final data for distance selling are not yet available for September (they were down in August by -2.2%, after -3.1 % in July).
Total industrial goods and food sales: M/M-1 change (%)
September and August 2021 m-o-m comparison; seasonally and working-day adjusted volume terms
Notes :
- Sectors are classified according to the relative weight of the products included in the total aggregate of retail trade (see methodology)
- The aggregated and by sub-sector series are seasonally adjusted on an individual basis: the seasonally adjusted series do not represent the sum of the seasonally adjusted components.
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