Eustat

Press Release 13/11/2009

DOMESTIC TRADE INDEX (ICI) 3rd quarter 2009

Trade sector sales fell by 16.1% in the Basque Country in the third quarter of 2009

Retail sector sales were down by 4.5% and by 22.4% in the wholesale sector

The Domestic Trade Index for the third quarter of 2009 registered a 16.1% nominal year-on-year decrease, in homogenous terms of the labour calendar, according to EUSTAT data.

Compared to the previous quarter, domestic trade sales recorded a 0.6% quarter-on-quarter drop, once the seasonal effect had been discounted.

Table 1. Nominal year-on-year domestic trade sales growth rates. Data corrected for calendar effects. The Basque Country

Source: EUSTAT

Wholesale trade saw its sales fall by 22.4% over the third quarter of this year, while retail trade sales worsened by 4.5%.

The nominal sales fell in all sub-sectors of the wholesale sector. Scrap and Semi-manufactured Products fell by the highest percentage (-34.0%), followed by Machinery and Equipment that were down by 28.8%, while Agricultural & Food Products and Non-Food Consumption Products fell much more moderately, by 9.5% and 4.8%, respectively.

Specialised retail trade saw a 2.9% drop in its nominal sales compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Non-specialised retail trade was down by 6.6% compared to the third quarter of 2008.

By provinces, the Domestic Trade Index was significantly down in all three territories. it was down by 19.5% in Álava, by 15.8% in Bizkaia and by 14.8% in Gipuzkoa, in nominal terms.

Wholesale sector sales were down by 25.2% in Álava, while the retail sector figures also registered a drop of -6.7%. In Bizkaia, the wholesale sector also fell by 20.9%, while the retail sector was down by 6.1%. The wholesale sector in Gipuzkoa was down by 23.6% and the retail sector by 1.1%.



Once the price-rise effect has been discounted, trade sector sales registered a year-on-year drop of 10.6% in the third quarter.

In real terms, wholesale sector sales posted a year-on-year decrease of 14.4% and the retail sector was down by 4.3%.

All the wholesale sub-sectors posted negative growth rates, in constant terms, headed by Machinery and Equipment (-28.4%) and Scrap and Semi-finished Products (-18.4%), while the wholesale figures for Food & Agricultural Products and Other Non-Food Consumer Articles registered more moderate negative rates, by -8.8% and -3.1%, respectively.

The provinces, once the price-rise effect has been discounted, posted similar negative rates in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa (-10.4%) and -11.6% in Álava.

With respect to the previous quarter, the domestic trade sales index in constant terms registered a 0.5% increase. This positive performance with respect to the previous quarter was registered both in Álava (2.7%) and in Bizkaia (0.3%), while it was slightly negative for Gipuzkoa (-0.1%).

The number of personnel employed in the trade sector of the Basque Country fell by 0.2% in the third quarter of 2009 with respect to the second quarter of 2009. By provinces, Álava (-0.3%) and Bizkaia (-0.7%) recorded a quarter-on-quarter decrease in employment in this sector, while things in improved in Gipuzkoa (0.7%) compared to the previous quarter, once the seasonal effect had been eliminated.

For further information:

Basque Statistics Office
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Tlf:+34-945-01 75 00 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 E-mail: eustat@eustat.es
Contact: Gerardo Pérez Aja
T el:+34-945-01 75 06 F ax:+34-945-01 75 01
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