The decline in retail sales continues. The relative seasonally adjusted index, in fact, recorded a drop of 0,2% compared to the previous month, while the total raw index recorded a decrease of 4,8% on an annual basis, mainly due to the 5,3% drop in sales of non-food products. This was communicated by Istat.
The index for the December 2012-February 2013 quarter shows a decrease of 0,7% compared to the previous three months. On an annual basis, in the first two months of 2013 the raw index fell by 3,8%.
Compared to the previous month, sales of food products increased in February (+0,2%), which offset the decline in those of non-food products (-0,3%). Looking at the form of distribution, the greatest drop, on an annual basis, is that of companies operating on small surfaces (-6,0%) compared to large-scale distribution, whose drop of 3,5% is a synthesis of the contraction of 3,8% of sales from non-specialized stores and 1,8% of non-specialized stores.
Sharp decrease, among the non-specialised mainly food shops, for hypermarkets (-5,3%) and supermarkets (-3,9%), while sales of discount stores hold, down by only 0,1%.
