Monthly survey on retail trade 2021Nov
Published on 16 December 2021
After rebounding markedly over the summer, turnover in retail trade declined slightly over the past three months
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.
Over the past three months, turnover in retail trade declined by 1.0% (adjusted for seasonal and working-day variations) compared with the previous three-month period, when it rose by 4.6%. It remains below its pre-crisis level while sole manufactured goods sales are above (respectively -1.6% and +1.3% compared with the average for 2019). The change over the past three months was driven by a 1.9% fall in manufactured goods sales, which offset the 1.1% rise in food sales. Sales volumes were down by 9.4% in furniture, by 6.4% for new cars and by 5.2% in footwear. Conversely, sales of games and toys rose by 18.7%, while perfumes and toilet preparations were up by 4.6% and household appliances by 4.1%. In terms of distribution channels, small retailers reported stable sales volumes (+ 0.1%), while large general retailers posted a growth of 1.6%. Final data for distance selling are not yet available for November, but they fell by 5.9% over the previous three-month period.
In November, retail sales were down by 0.9% compared with October.
In November, retail sales were down by 0.9% compared with October.
Total manufactured goods and food sales: T/T-1 change (%)
Quarter-on-quarter change ; seasonally and working-day adjusted volume terms
Notes :
- The quarter-on-quarter change is calculated as the ratio of the average of the indices for the current quarter (September-October-November) to the average for the previous quarter (June-July-August).
- 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.
- The quarter-on-quarter change is calculated as the ratio of the average of the indices for the current quarter (September-October-November) to the average for the previous quarter (June-July-August).
- 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.
Download the PDF version of the document
COM_DET_2243_en__retail-trade-november-2021.pdf
Additional links
Breakdown by industrial product and outlet category – November 2021
Updated on 15 December 2021