05/12/2013 00:00
TW
0

Palma.—The National Institute of Statistics (INE) said that the Balearics was third only after Andalucia where year-on-year sales last month fell by -9.8 percent and Galicia (-8.9%), but loss of employment in the retail sector for the country as a whole was down just -0.5 percent.

During the first ten months of this year, retail trade in the sector in the Balearics has fallen by 4.7 percent in comparison with the same period last year, less than the national downturn of (-5.5 percent). However, employment generated during January to October in fact rose by 0.6 percent.

The INE reported that sales during the first 10 months of the year went down in all regions of the country compared to the same period in 2010. However, variances were the least in the Canary Islands where the year-on-year difference was -4.4 percent, in Navarre (-4.6%), Extremadura (-5.3%) and Castilla y Leon (-5.4%).

Findings for the whole of the country in October this year reveal that sales fell by 6.9 percent in comparison with the same month in 2010, greater than the downturn in September (-5.4 percent).

The October report shows that there have been 16 consecutive months of decline in the retail trade after a brief upturn in June last year.
All sales outlets had year-on-year losses in October, particularly department stores which suffered losses of 10.3 percent compared to the same month in 2010.

Small chain stores also had losses in October (-8.8%) in comparison with the previous year, whilst individual shops registered a year-on-year decline of 7.1 percent.

Even discounting price differential, sales at petrol service stations suffered year-on-year losses last month with a downturn in income of 5.8 percent.

Employment
Although the INE, which is a Central Government department showed that employment in the retail sector across the country as a whole declined by an average of 0.5 percent in October compared to a year ago, the downturn was four decimal points less than the year-on-year drop registered in September.

A notable exception was in service stations where the number of jobs rose by 0.1 percent and in large chain stores where year-on-year employment figures were up by 1.5 percent.

The greatest downturn in jobs in the sector in October were in large department stores where employment levels were 3 percent down on figures for the same month in 2010.

There were year-on-year declines too for small chain stores (-2.4 %) but there was no change at all in jobs in individual shops.