In the first half of the current year, the retail of non-food items experienced a decline in revenue. While real revenue decreased by 3.6%, nominal revenue increased by 1.1%. The internet and mail order retail sector was particularly affected, recording a real decrease of 7.3% and a nominal decrease of 2.6% in the months from January to June 2023 compared to the previous year. Similarly unfavorable figures were also observed in the DIY stores, with real revenues declining by 6.9% and nominal revenues by 0.8%.
In contrast, there were positive developments in the retail of textiles, clothing, shoes, and leather goods. In the first half of 2023, a considerable increase of 7.3% in real revenue and 9.3% in nominal revenue was recorded. It is assumed that these results are partly attributed to base effects caused by the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic in the previous year.
During the pandemic, the internet and mail order retail, as well as the DIY sector, experienced temporary strong revenue growth. At the same time, clothing stores suffered significant losses, which only began to stabilize with the easing of COVID-19 protective measures.
It is important to consider the different comparison periods when analyzing economic indicators. For a short-term economic development assessment, the focus is on comparing calendar and seasonally adjusted values to the previous month/quarter. On the other hand, the calendar-adjusted year-on-year comparison serves as a longer-term level comparison and does not take into account seasonal fluctuations or calendar effects. Currently, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the Ukraine conflict can lead to very different results in the comparison periods.
