Czech retail sales fall by 3.3 % yr/yr in October

Prague, Dec 18 (ČTK) - Czech retail sales fell by 3.3 % year-on-year
in October after a revised 6.1 % growth a month earlier, the Czech
Statistical Office (CSU) said Thursday.

Analysts had expected a drop in retail sales for October owing to the
financial crisis which has started to affect consumers' behaviour.

"The consumption of households is decreasing. The only thing they have not
given up is buying consumer electronics and white goods," Raiffeisenbank
analyst Helena Horska said, adding that there is no interest in cars.

The retail segment has been struggling with a stagnation for a year and a
slowdown is now coming. Christmas shopping can only make the fall slacken,
she said.

Seasonally adjusted retail sales, except for the motorist segment, dropped
by a real 0.7 % month-on-month and by 0.1 % year-on-year in
October.

Not seasonally adjusted sales shed 2.3 %, with sales of food falling
by 2.8 % and sales of non-food goods dropping by 2 %.

Seasonally adjusted retail sales in the motorist segment went down by a
real 1.3 % month-on-month and 1.8 % year-on-year. The
unadjusted sales figure fell by 5.2 %.

Motor vehicles sales dropped by 8.6 %. Seasonally adjusted sales in
the accommodation and catering fell by 0.9 % month-on-month and the
unadjusted sales fell by 5.5 % year-on-year.

Seasonally adjusted retail sales including the motorist segment fell by 0.9
% month-on-month and 0.6 % year-on-year.

Specialised stores with other non-food goods and stores with miscellaneous
goods, food predominating, contributed the most to the October sales drop.

These shops are mostly open on working days only and react most sensitively
to the year-on-year difference in the number of working days.

October was only one working day shorter against last year, but two
Tuesdays were missing, which are the most important sales days for the
non-food industry, the CSU said.

Specialised stores with electronics, electrical appliances, furniture and
other household goods, less important retail trade via the Internet or mail
order, and second-hand goods sales posted the highest growth, according to
the CSU data.

The price deflator related to October 2007 was 102.7 %. The biggest
price increase was reported in food stores, with prices in specialized and
non-specialized stores growing by 7.1 % and 5.8 %.

Prices in stores with pharmaceutical and medical goods, cosmetics and
toilet articles rose by 4.9 %. Prices at stalls and in other sale
operated outside stores increased by 2.8 %.

Prices in non-specialised stores with non-food goods predominating
increased by 2 %.

By contrast, price decreases were reported by stores with household
articles (-1.5 %), in sale via mail order houses (-1.4 %), in
stores with second-hand goods (-1.0 %), in stores with clothing and
footwear (-0.4 %), and in sale of other non-food goods (-0.2 %).

According to data released by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office,
seasonally adjusted retail sales in the EU-27 fell by a real 0.3 %
month-on-month in October, the CSU said.

Year-on-year, retail sales adjusted for the number of workdays rose by 0.8
%.

Among member states whose data were available, Romania showed the fastest
year-on-year growth in retail sales of 9.4 %.

Retail sales in Poland grew by 5.1 %, followed by Slovakia (4.6
%), Bulgaria (2.8 %), Slovenia (2.5 %), Britain (2.4
%), Finland (1.4 %) and Lithuania (0.9 %).

In contrast, the sales dropped in Latvia (14.4 %), Estonia (8.5
%), Spain (7.8 %), Denmark (5.4 %), Germany (1.5
%), Luxembourg (1.4 %), Austria (1.1 %), Sweden (0.7
%), Portugal (0.5 %) and Belgium (0.1 %).