1706431043
We bought more pharmacy goods and clothing last year. At the same time, fewer people replaced their cars.
Photo: Emilie Holtet / NTBPublished:
January 26th
Updated January 26th
Norwegian retail fell 0.9 percent from November to December. It shows current, seasonally adjusted figures from Statistics Norway’s goods trade index.
– The industry that contributed the most to the decline was the retail of other household goods in specialty stores, with furniture and building materials among others declining. In addition, retail sales of sports equipment also fell slightly in December, says Marius Bergh, senior advisor at the Norwegian Statistics Authority.
Read more E24+
2024 can be better for people – even with poor salaries and the same interest rate (+)
Weaker than expected
The development was weaker than expected, writes Handelsbanken in its morning report. An increase of 0.2 percent had previously been expected.
At the same time, the development of the somewhat broader goods consumption index has so far been somewhat better than Norges Bank expected.
“With this in mind, we do not immediately see anything in the latest retail sales figures that would suggest that Norges Bank is in any greater hurry to cut interest rates in the future,” chief economist Marius Gonsholt Hov writes in the report.
Less car, more pharmacy
For the full year 2023 there was a decrease of 3 percent compared to the previous year.
At the same time, inflation was high. This means that the annual value index for retail sales rose by 2.2 percent in 2023.
Pharmacy goods and clothing were among the few industries that recorded an increase in sales last year, writes SSB.
The sales volume for pharmacy goods even rose by 4.7 percent, and clothing sales ended with an increase of 1.3 percent compared to 2022.
At the same time, there has been a significant decline in the automotive industry.
– A period of high prices and interest rates led to a 23 percent decline in motor vehicle trade and repairs. The increase in taxes on electric cars from 2023, which led to very high sales of electric cars at the end of 2022, may also have contributed to the decline in 2023, says Bergh.
Autumn in November in the Eurozone
For November, i.e. the previous month, there was an overall decline in seasonally adjusted retail sales in the euro zone of 0.3 percent.
Sweden recorded a 1 percent decline, while Danes purchased 1.3 percent more in November than in October.
In comparison, retail in Norway rose 0.4 percent in November. At the time, the Norwegian Statistics Office assumed that this could be related to a postponement of the traditional Christmas trade from December to November.
#Retail #fell #percent #December #E24