In August, the turnover growth of retail trade enterprises accelerated to some extent

In August 2016, the turnover of retail trade enterprises was 561.9 million euros. The turnover growth acceleration was influenced by the stores selling manufactured goods, where sales increased 15% compared to August 2015. The turnover increased in all economic activities. Turnover increased the most in stores selling pharmaceutical goods and cosmetics, with sales increasing slightly more than a fifth (21%). A higher than average increase in turnover occurred also in sales via mail order or the Internet (19%) and in stores selling household goods and appliances, hardware and building materials (17%). In August, the turnover in stores selling textiles, clothing and footwear, which showed a slight decline in July, turned to rise again and grew 14% compared to the same month of the previous year. After the decline in July, the turnover increased also in other specialized stores, such as stores selling computers and their accessories, books, sports equipment, games and toys etc. (12%) and in non-specialized stores selling predominantly industrial goods (e.g. department stores) (4%).

The turnover in grocery stores, which showed a stable 1% growth in the last two months, turned to fall in August and decreased 1% compared to August of the previous year.

In August, the turnover of enterprises engaging in the retail sales of automotive fuels also turned to fall and decreased 2% compared to same month of the previous year. The turnover decrease of these enterprises was partly influenced by the high reference base of August 2015 and deceleration in the price decrease of automotive fuel.

Compared to the previous month, in August, the turnover of retail trade enterprises decreased 1%. According to the seasonally and working-day adjusted data, the growth was also 1%. In the eight months of 2016 (January–August), the turnover in retail trade enterprises increased 5% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

In 2016, to publish monthly statistics on retail trade, Statistics Estonia started to use only the VAT declaration data of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board and stopped data collection with the questionnaire “Turnover”. This will reduce the response burden of entrepreneurs and Statistics Estonia’s expenditure on data collection, and increase the use of administrative data. Due to the change in the data source, the monthly news release “Retail trade” will focus on the turnover of retail trade enterprises, instead of the retail sales of such enterprises. Statistics Estonia will continue publishing the retail sales indicator of retail trade enterprises on a quarterly and yearly basis. Statistics Estonia published the monthly summary in four working days.