Retail sales up year on year in August

Retail sales volume rose year on year in August, having slipped in July according to the latest data from the Statistical Service, which also produced revised figures for earlier months this year.

The volume of retail sales rose by 3.5% in August 2005 compared with August 2004, although for seasonal reasons this marked a sharp drop of 7.7% compared with the previous month.

Retail sales volume had recorded a slight fall of 0.9% in July, possibly as a result of the truckers’ strike which will have damaged supply chains.

For the period January-August 2005 retail sales volumes were up by 4.5% compared with the corresponding period of 2004. By value retail sales were up 4.7% in the same period.

The strongest sales by volume this year have been sales of pharmaceuticals and medical goods, cosmetics and toiletries. Pharmacy representatives said that the strong sales must be related to cosmetics or toiletries, since they have not noticed any boom in medicine sales this year.

Food and beverages sales in outlets such as supermarkets and kiosks have also performed strongly, up by 10.6% year on year in January to August.

Given the small size of the Cypriot economy, it could be the case that Turkish Cypriot weekend shoppers are the cause of both healthy supermarket/kiosk sales of food and strong sales of cosmetics and toiletries.

Food sales in specialised stores such as bakeries are also up strongly, rising by 8.9% year on year in the first eight months.