Turnover in retail trade, March 2023
Retail sales volume decreased in March 2023
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2023-04-28 8.00
The retail sales volume decreased by 1.6 percent in March 2023 compared with February 2023. Retail sales in consumables (excluding Systembolaget, the state-owned chain of liquor stores) increased by 0.3 percent and retail sales in durables decreased by 2.4 percent. These figures are working-day and seasonally adjusted and calculated in fixed prices.
“All retail sub-sectors except bookstores showed declines compared to March last year. The largest declines were seen in retail sales in durables, for example the sales volume in stores for building materials and stores for furnitures decreased by more than 20 percent compared to March 2022.”, says Jeongwon Kim, statistician at Statistics Sweden.
In the last three-month period (January-March), sales volume in working-day and seasonally adjusted figures decreased by 2.9 percent compared with the previous three-month period (October-December). Retail sales in durables decreased by 3.7 percent and retail sales in consumables (excluding Systembolaget) decreased by 1.8 percent.
In March, the year-on-year growth rate in the volume of retail sales was negative 11.6 percent in working-day adjusted figures. Retail sales in durables decreased by 14.2 percent and retail sales in consumables (excluding Systembolaget) decreased by 8.9 percent.
In fixed prices and non-working-day adjusted figures, total retail trade decreased by 10.9 percent in volume compared with the corresponding period a year ago. Retail sales in durables decreased by 13,7 percent and retail sales in consumables (excluding Systembolaget) decreased by 8.0 percent.
Turnover in retail trade measured in current prices increased by 0.7 percent in March 2023 compared with March 2022. Retail sales in durables decreased by 5.8 percent while retail sales in consumables (excluding Systembolaget) increased by 10.0 percent.
To consider:
Under present circumstances with broad price increases on consumer goods, consumption patterns may change. Consumers may choose cheaper alternatives for goods that have become more expensive (so called substitution). This might lead to an underestimation of retail sales measured in fixed prices. This might mostly be a concern for retail sales in consumables, but can also be a factor within other sectors.
Definitions and explanations
Total retail trade here refers to NACE 47 excluding 47.3.
Trade in consumables (excluding Systembolaget) here refers to NACE 47.11 and 47.2. excluding 47.25.
Trade in durables here refers to NACE 47.19 and 47.4–47.9.
Revisions
When the Retail Trade Index is published for a new month, the indices for previous months are also revised if new information has been added. As from April 2015, a new method is used to calculate the final statistics. The new method mainly involves using administrative data from the Swedish Tax Agency on a quarterly basis to increase the number of companies that are surveyed. This means that final quarterly statistics are based on a total calculation for all the companies in the frame population. Administrative data is used every quarter with the aim to improve the quality of the Retail Trade Index and decrease the response burden.
Usually, the material is revised between two and four months backwards, depending on where in the quarter the reference month is located. In connection with the publication of the first and second month in a quarter, the entire previous quarter is revised. The series, corrected for working day and seasonal effects and trend estimates, is always revised from April 1991 and forward.
Information about major revisions is published on the product page: Turnover in the service sector.
Next publishing will be
Statistics concerning April 2023 will be published on 26 May 2023.
Statistical Database
More information is available in the Statistical Database
Feel free to use the facts from this statistical news but remember to state Source: Statistics Sweden.