Spanish retail trade suffers on the back of VAT hikes
Mon 29 Oct 2012
LONDON (SHARECAST) - Spain's retail sales as measured by the General Retail Trade Index took a hit in September, falling by 12.6 per cent on the same month of 2011 at constant prices, according to the official statistics office.
This compares with a 2% fall in August.
After adjusting the calendar effect (the difference between the number of working days in a given month in different years), the Retail Trade Index registered an annual decline of 10.9% in September.
Retail sales fell across all distribution classes compared to the same month of last year.
The employment index in the Retail Trade sector in September registered an annual rate of –1.2%, 10 basis points below that registered in August.
"As expected, the relative sales improvement in August was due to the value-added tax hike that was scheduled for early September," said analyst Francisco Miñana from Digital Look.
"The outlook is not very optimistic given the current labour market situation and the low access to consumer credit financing."
LONDON (SHARECAST) - Spain's retail sales as measured by the General Retail Trade Index took a hit in September, falling by 12.6 per cent on the same month of 2011 at constant prices, according to the official statistics office.
