Retail sales moderate their growth in April to 5%

MADRID, May 30. (EUROPA PRESS) - Retail trade registered a 5% increase in sales in April in relation to the same month of 2022, a rate 4.9 points lower than that of the previous month, as reported on Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics ( INE).

With the data for April, retail trade sales have a chain of five consecutive months of positive interannual rates.

Within the sector, sales of food products rose 0.9% year-on-year, ending seven consecutive months of negative rates, while sales of other products increased 14.2% compared to April 2022.

Stripping out seasonal and calendar effects, retail trade invoicing increased by 5.5% in the fourth month of the year, a rate 4.4 points lower than that of March.

SALES GROW 0.9% IN THE MONTH OF APRIL

In monthly terms (April over March), retail trade increased its sales by 0.9% in the seasonally adjusted series, a rate two tenths higher than that of March and its highest increase since November 2022.

By product, sales of food decreased by 0.1% in April in relation to the previous month, while those of other products increased by 2%, with a decrease of 0.6% in sales of household equipment . Sales of personal equipment, for their part, increased by 10.2% in April compared to the month of March.

All distribution modes presented positive monthly rates in the fourth month of the year. The greatest monthly increase in sales was recorded by single-location companies (4%), followed by small chains (2.1%), large chains (1%) and large stores (0.3%).

EMPLOYMENT ACCELERATE ITS GROWTH RATE TO 1.8%

As regards employment, the sector registered an interannual increase in employment of 1.8% in April, a rate one tenth higher than that of the previous month. With this rebound, employment in retail trade has now accumulated 24 consecutive months of year-on-year increases.

The largest year-on-year increase in employment is observed in large chains (3.7%), followed by small chains (2.1%) and single-location companies (1%).

In monthly terms, employment in the sector grew by 0.6%, highlighting the rise in employment in small chains (1.4%).

ONLY CASTILLA Y LEÓN CUTS ITS SALES

Retail sales rose in the annual rate in all the autonomous communities in April, except in Castilla y León (-0.6%).

The greatest increases were registered in the Balearic Islands (12.4%), the Community of Madrid (10.4%) and the Valencian Community (7.1%), while the Basque Country, Aragon and Murcia presented the most moderate increases, from 0. 7% on each.

For its part, employment in retail commerce increased in 16 communities in the annual rate, with the Balearic Islands (5.3%) and the Canary Islands (4.2%) registering the greatest increases, followed by Extremadura, with an increase in employment of 3 .7%

At the other extreme, only Asturias cut its staff in retail commerce in relation to April 2022, with a decrease of 1.8%. It also fell in the autonomous city of Ceuta (-0.9%).