Retail trade flash estimate: turnover grew by 2.1% year-on-year in July

According to Statistics Finland’s retail trade flash estimate, the working day adjusted turnover of retail trade increased by 2.1% in July from July 2018.

The volume of retail trade sales, from which the impact of price changes has been eliminated, grew by 1.7% over the same period. In daily consumer goods trade, the working day adjusted turnover increased by 0.2% in July but the volume of sales went down by 1.3% from the corresponding period of the previous year.

The factors caused by the variation in the number of weekdays are taken into account in adjustment for working days. This means taking into consideration the lengths of months, different weekdays and holidays.

According to the Structural business and financial statement statistics, daily consumer goods accounted for 50.1 per cent of turnover in retail trade in 2017.

The retail trade flash estimate is based on a sample covering, on the average, 60 per cent of retail trade turnover. Data on trade sales by industry will next be released on 12 September 2019.

Flash estimates on retail trade are published at a lag of just under one month from the end of the statistical reference month.

The preliminary data on other trade industries are published at a lag of roughly six weeks from the end of the statistical reference month and the revised data based on total data are published at a lag of roughly ten weeks.