Johanna Linda Pihlak, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that while turnover in September had decreased by 7 percent on year, the decline slowed down somewhat in October. "The drop in retail trade turnover in October was most affected by stores selling manufactured goods, where turnover fell by 10 percent on year," Pihlak added.

Among stores selling manufactured goods, turnover decreased the most, by 27 percent, in those selling via mail order or the Internet. The decline in turnover was also above average in other specialized stores selling predominantly computers and their accessories, books, sports equipment, games, toys, etc. (down 14 percent) and in stores selling household goods and appliances, hardware and building materials, which reported an 11 percent fall. In pharmacies and stores selling cosmetics, turnover increased by 4 percent.

The turnover of grocery stores was down by 1 percent when compared to the figures from October 2022. Turnover of enterprises engaged in the retail sale of automotive fuel, which had been falling since the start of the year, saw a return to growth in October, increasing 2 percent on year.

"The sales growth in these enterprises was affected by the fall in the prices of automotive fuels," said Pihlak.

The turnover of retail trade enterprises increased by 2 percent from September to October. According to seasonally and working-day adjusted data, turnover remained at the previous month's level.

In the first ten months of 2023, the turnover of retail trade enterprises decreased by 8 percent when compared to the same period in the previous year.

More information is available here and here.

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