Month-on-month, sales in retail (excluding motor vehicles) increased by 1.6% in January, including a 4.7% increase in fuels, 2.2% for non-food goods, and a slight decrease for food. Compared to last year, retail sales increased by 8.5%, of which sales of non-food goods increased by 14.8%, fuels by 7.8% and food by 0.4%. Photo credit: Freepik
Czech Republic, 14 March (BD) – According to data from the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO), all categories of specialised non-food stores showed an increase in sales, including clothing and footwear (199.2%), products for culture, sports and recreation (30.9%), household products (27.2%), cosmetics and toiletry (14.9%), computer and communication equipment (11.3%), and pharmaceutical and medical goods (7.0%). Specialised food retailers saw a higher increase in sales (7.7%) than non-specialized stores with food predominating, which saw sales stagnate.
“High growth rates were recorded mainly in stores, which were affected by measures related to the coronavirus pandemic in January a year ago. Sales of clothing and footwear stores increased the most, almost threefold, but they still did not reach the level of 2019,” said Jana Gotvaldová, head of the trade, transport and services statistics department at CZSO. “The decrease in sales of online and mail order stores by 5.7% is mainly due to high growth in January 2021, when many shops were closed,” adds Marie Boušková, director of trade, transport, services, tourism and environmental statistics at CZSO.
