Retail Sales down in September

The CSO have released the provisional retails sales index for September and the final retail sales index for August 2017. The figures show a drop in sales in September from August, while also showing an annual increase from September 2016. The CSO state that when car sales are excluded Retails sales are up from August.

Seasonally adjusted, the volume of retail sales decreased by 2.4% in the month of September, with an annual increase of 1.2%.

If Motor Trades are excluded, there was an increase of 1.3% in the volume of retail sales in September 2017 when compared with August 2017 and there was an increase of 7.7% in the annual figure.

The sectors with the largest monthly volume increases were Furniture & Lighting (4.7%), Electrical Goods (3.4%) and Other Retail Sales (2.0%).

The sectors with the largest month on month volume decreases were Motor Trades (-18.0%) and Clothing, Footwear & Textiles (-3.1%).

There was a decrease of 4.4% in the value of retail sales in September 2017 when compared with August 2017 and there was an annual decrease of 1.6% when compared with September 2016. If Motor Trades are excluded there was an increase of 0.8% on the month and 4.8% in the annual figure.