Retail sales down and inflation too
Print8 February 2009
The latest news from the Central Statistics Office revealed that retail sales in Ireland have hit a 25 year low.
The volume of sales in November 2008 decreased 8.1% compared with the same month the previous year. Although, excluding motor trade it was an annual decrease of 7.8%. This represents the largest annual retail volume decrease (excluding motor sales) since April 1975. The value of sales decreased 6.8% in the year to November, and 1.2% in the month.
Also revealed last month, inflation fell “sharply” to 1.1% at the end of 2008. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) decreased by 1.2%, in contrast to the 0.1% increase seen in the same month in 2007.
According to the CSO, the most notable changes in the year were increases in alcoholic beverages and tobacco (6.8%), health (5.8%), education (5.7%), restaurants and hotels (3.7%), and food and non-alcoholic beverages (3.2%). Price decreases occurred in clothing and footwear (-6.5%), transport (-3.5%) and furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (-1.3%). The annual rate of inflation for services was 2.7% in December, while goods decreased by 0.9% in the year.
The CPI excluding tobacco index for December decreased by 1.3% in the month, although it was up 0.9% in the year, CPI excluding energy products was down 0.7% since November but increased by 1.5% in the year, and CPI excluding mortgage interest fell by 0.6% in the month, but was up by 1.5% in the year.
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