Global| Mar 02 2006January Retail Trade Gains in 4 Very Diverse Places
Summary
Four widely diverse areas reported retail trade today for January. Generally, these reports indicated some strength. In Hong Kong, for example, sales were up 11.6% over a year ago, extending a firmer performance into a second month. [...]
Four widely diverse areas reported retail trade today for January. Generally, these reports indicated some strength. In Hong Kong, for example, sales were up 11.6% over a year ago, extending a firmer performance into a second month. In a larger area, Germany's sales rebounded to a 2.2% year-on-year gain after being down in December. Australia and Estonia also had favorable sales increases in January.
The Hong Kong retail sales firmed noticeably for consumer electronics, and clothing had a modest increase, apparently picking up after a lull in late summer and autumn. Also in that region of the world, sales in Australia gained 4.2% from January 2005, with the food and hospitality sectors leading. Department stores and recreation good were both down from a year ago.
For Germany, only total sales are available in their initial release. However, notably, the improvement here corresponds to the improved sentiment of retail trade business executives reported in the Ifo survey. In detail Ifo data released Tuesday, the Business Climate Index for that sector was 96.0 in January, the third highest since 2001. Then for February, the index climbed more than 4 points to 100.7, its first reading above 100 since the base year of 2000. The correlation between year-to-year percent changes in this index and in actual retail sales is 0.44. Correlations of other Ifo indexes are even better; for instance, the total index is 0.53 and the index for consumer goods less food is 0.62. Thus, business executives of related production industries are at least as concerned about the performance in final sales as managers of the stores themselves.
Finally, retail sales gains were good in Estonia. The year-on-year pace in January was 23%, although this magnitude partly reflects a base effect in which January 2005 was quite weak. So, when we look at the seasonally adjusted data calculated by Haver Analytics, we see that the latest figure actually shows a small decrease from December's amount. Despite this modest setback, volume growth in Estonia has actually been quite strong, up 18.8% from a year ago and off just 0.4% from December. The last three months of 2005 averaged 2.5% month-to-month gains in the volume index. Thus, Estonian consumer demand appears quite buoyant.
| Retail Trade, Yr/Yr % Changes | Jan 2006 | Dec 2005 | Nov 2005 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hong Kong | 11.6 | 6.8 | 4.2 | 6.8 | 10.8 | -2.3 |
| Australia | 4.2 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 2.8 | 7.2 | 6.8 |
| Germany | 2.2 | -0.5 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 2.0 | -0.5 |
| Estonia | 23.0 | 16.4 | 14.9 | 12.4 | 15.5 | 9.5 |
Carol Stone, CBE
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Carol Stone, CBE came to Haver Analytics in 2003 following more than 35 years as a financial market economist at major Wall Street financial institutions, most especially Merrill Lynch and Nomura Securities. She has broad experience in analysis and forecasting of flow-of-funds accounts, the federal budget and Federal Reserve operations. At Nomura Securites, among other duties, she developed various indicator forecasting tools and edited a daily global publication produced in London and New York for readers in Tokyo. At Haver Analytics, Carol is a member of the Research Department, aiding database managers with research and documentation efforts, as well as posting commentary on select economic reports. In addition, she conducts Ways-of-the-World, a blog on economic issues for an Episcopal-Church-affiliated website, The Geranium Farm. During her career, Carol served as an officer of the Money Marketeers and the Downtown Economists Club. She has a PhD from NYU's Stern School of Business. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has a weekend home on Long Island.
More Economy in Brief
