Retail turnover has been increasing already for 14 consecutive months, but its growth rate in April slowed down to 9.5%

In April 2022, retail turnover increased year-on-year, but at a slower pace than in the previous few months. The increase was achieved by seven out of the nine retail components. Turnover of the PC and ICT equipment as well as in the food, beverages and tobacco stores increased by more than a quarter. On the contrary, turnover of mail order as well as bookstores, sporting goods and toy stores was lower than a year ago.

In April 2022, retail turnover continued to rise to 9.5% compared to the corresponding period last year, but did not reach double-digit growth as in the first three months of 2022. Nominal turnover volumes were higher by almost 20% than before the pandemic (April 2019), however, their real growth was marked by high inflation.

Year-on-year, turnover rose in seven out of the nine retail components, and in five of them it rose even at a double-digit rate. A more significant turnover growth in April 2022 was due to lower turnover of selected components of the trade in April 2021 as a result of the lingering measures of the second wave of the pandemic. The Easter holidays, which were in the middle of April, were reflected in a year-on-year turnover growth in food, beverages and tobacco stores by 25.1% and a year-on-year increase in turnover of hyper and supermarkets by 10%, which are the most important components of retail. In the second most significant component- in specialized stores, e.g. with footwear, textiles, drugstores – turnover rose by 16.6%.

High year-on-year growth at the level of 29.1% was also achieved by a less significant component of retail trade - PC and ICT equipment. Hobby markets, furniture and consumer electronics stores also achieved turnover growth (by 11.6%). Turnover of gas stations and turnover in retail trade in stalls and markets rose more slowly.

In the fourth month, turnover in mail order sales (including sales outside stores) decreased, currently by 8.6%. Compared to April 2021, turnover of bookstores, sports equipment and toys also decreased.

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Year-on-year development of other trade components in April 2022

In April 2022, turnover of sale and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles decreased by 5% year-on-year, mainly due to the turnover drop of motor vehicles sales. In wholesale, April´s turnover rose by one fifth (by 21,9% at current prices) compared with last year.

In food and beverage service activities, the turnover in April rose by 60,5% compared with the previous year and by more than 17% compared with April 2019. At the same time, in the fourth consecutive month, turnover in accommodation was four times higher than the year before, which is a consequence of last year's complete lockdown. However, the accommodation providers have still not been able to reach the nominal values of turnover from April 2019 and, after taking into account inflation, they are much more significantly lagging behind the turnover from the pre-pandemic period.

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Month-on-month development in April 2022 compared with March 2022

Compared to the previous month¹⁾ (March 2022), turnover in April 2022 increased sale and repair of motor vehicles by 3,5%. It slightly rose in accommodation by 0,1%. Turnover in wholesale remained unchanged month-on-month and in retail trade it dropped by 1,5% and in food and beverage service activities by 0,5% .

Overall development for 4 months of 2022

In summary for the first four month of 2022, turnover achieved year-on-year growth in all components of internal trade. Double-digit growth was recorded in food and beverage service activities by 63.2%, wholesale by 23.0% and retail trade by 14.2%. In sale and repair of motor vehicles turnover increased by 7.1%. However, in accommodation with more than quadruple growth is still catching up with the outages of the last year´s complete lockdown.