01/07/2011: Retail Sales for May 2011

With a delay due to technical issues with the blog - here are the updated figures for retail sales for May:

• The volume of retail sales declined 2.1% in May 2011 when compared with May 2010 but rose 1.3%. mom. Current reading for the index is now 92.7, up from 91.5 in April but still below 2010 annual average of 93.3. The index is now above its 3mo average of 92.17. The index is now down 17.96% on its peak.
• Value fo retail sales is up 1.1% mom and down 1.5% year on year. The index reading in May 2011 was 88.4 against April reading of 87.4. May reading is still below 88.85 2010 average, but above 3-mo average of 88. Relative to the peak, value of sales is now down 24.44%.
  

• Ex-Motor Trades, the volume of retail sales decreased by 5.1% in May 2011 against May 2010 and declined 0.6% mom. The index now stands at 98.2 against 98.9 in April, and 99.1 3mo average. The index is also lower than 6mo average of 99.38. The latest yoy drop comes after 5.2% decrease in April 2011 and marks the second largest decline since December 2009 when index contracted 6.3% yoy
  
• Ex-Motors value index fell 1.2% mom and 3.5% yoy and now reads 95.2 against 96.3 in April. This was the largest annualized drop since September 2010 when yoy decline was 3.8%
  

Per CSO: "Motor Trades (+13.0%) and Electrical Goods (+2.9%) were the only categories that showed year-on-year increases in the volume of retail sales this month. Hardware Paints & Glass (-13.9%), Other Retail Sales (-10.3%) and Fuel (-9.9), were amongst the eleven categories that showed year-on-year decreases in the volume of retail sales this month." Interestingly, despite declines in volume, fuel sales were up 1.1% yoy in terms of value, implying rampant inflation in the category. In contrast, decline in value of sales in Furniture & Lighting (-14.5%) outpaced declines in volume of sales (-13.9%) implying deflation on top of collapsing volumes. In Electrical Goods, a rise in volume was offset by a 3.1 drop in value (yoy), implying deflation canceling out positive effects of growth in the volume of sales.

As of April 2011, Ireland (-4.9%) posted the second largest monthly drop in retail sales volumes in the Euro area after Malta (-8.0%), although Greece (likely to show deeper fall than Ireland) is yet to report comparative data. In March 2011 we recorded 5th highest drop in volumes, same as in February and January.