The crisis is making itself felt on consumption. In June retail sales are down again in Italy, with the raw index calculated by Istat scoring a decrease on an annual basis of 0,5%. The figure is the result of an increase of 1,3% for food products and a simultaneous decrease of 1,4% for non-food products.
Also in June, the seasonally adjusted index of retail sales recorded a cyclical increase of 0,4%. On average for the April-June 2012 quarter, the index decreased by 1,7% compared to the previous three months.
In comparison with May 2012, sales increased by 0,2% for food products and by 0,4% for non-food products. Sales by distribution form show, in comparison with June 2011, a positive variation for large-scale distribution (+1,8%) and a contraction for companies operating in small areas (-2,1%).
In the first six months of 2012, compared to the same period of 2011, the raw index decreased by 1,4%: sales of food products recorded a slight increase (+0,2%), while those of non-food products recorded a decline (-2,2%).
In comparison with June 2011, there was a positive variation of 1,8% for the sales of large-scale distribution companies and a decrease of 2,1% for those of companies operating on small surfaces. In large-scale distribution, sales show a trend increase both for food products (+3,6%) and, to a lesser extent, for non-food products (+0,2%). In companies operating on small surfaces, sales decreased both for food products (-2,1%) and for non-food products (-2,3%).
Among large-scale retail companies, there are trend increases of 2,2% for non-specialised shops and 0,3% for specialized ones. In the former, the sales of mainly food outlets increased by 2,5%, those of non-food outlets by 0,6%.
