(Finance) – In March 2024Compared to the previous month, overall retail sales did not record significant changes. Sales of food goods are slightly increasing while those of non-food goods are experiencing a slight decline. It is noted there‘ISTAT underlining that, instead, at a trend level, there is a growth in both value and volumedetermined by the sales of food goods, which are significantly affected by the different location of Easter, which this year fell in the month of March while in 2023 it fell in April.
Between forms of distribution, only large-scale distribution is growingdriven by the sales of non-specialised, predominantly food-based businesses.
In particular, the Institute of Statistics estimates in March, for retail sales, a zero cyclical change in value and a slight decline in volume (-0.1%). Sales of food goods are slightly increasing (+0.2% in value and +0.1% in volume) while those of non-food goods are decreasing (-0.3% in value and volume).
In the first quarter of 2024, in economic terms, retail sales are stationary in value and suffer a decline in volume (-0.4%). Sales of food goods recorded no change in value and decreased in volume (-0.6%) while sales of non-food goods decreased in both value and volume (-0.1% and -0.2% respectively) .
On a trend basis, as of March 2024, retail sales increase by 2.0% in value and 0.3% in volume. Sales of food goods grew by 6.4% in value and 3.6% in volume, while those of non-food goods decreased both in value (-1.5%) and in volume (-2.0%).
As for the non-food goods, there are heterogeneous trend changes between product groups. The greatest increase concerns perfumery and personal care products (+4.3%), while household tools and hardware recorded the most significant decline (-7.5%).
Compared to March 2023the value of retail sales is growing only for large-scale distribution (+6.1%), while it is decreasing for businesses operating on small surfaces (-1.5%), sales outside of shops ( -2.6%) and e-commerce (-2.4%).