HELSINKI: Retail trade sales increased by 1.6 per cent in December 2015 from December 2014, according to Statistics Finland. Growth came both from daily consumer goods trade and department store trade. In daily consumer goods trade sales increased by 0.2 per cent and in department store trade by 1.2 per cent. Motor vehicle trade also grew from one year ago in December and the sales volume was 8.2 per cent higher than in December 2014.
In wholesale trade, sales, in turn, declined by 2.8 per cent year-on-year, which also pushed total trade sales down by 0.2 per cent. The volume of retail trade sales grew by 3.1 per cent in December from December 2014. Among the sectors of trade, sales volume increased most in the motor vehicle trade, by 7.8 per cent from one year earlier.
The growth was affected by increased sales of new motor vehicles as the data indicate that the number of first registrations of motor vehicles was also 18.1 per cent higher in December than in December 2014. In wholesale trade, the sales volume was nearly on the same level as in December 2014, declining by 0.1 per cent.
The volume of total sales grew by 1.9 per cent from one year earlier, the statistics show. Retail trade sales declined by 0.7 per cent in January to December 2015 from the same period in the year before.
In wholesale trade, the decline in the corresponding period was 4.6 per cent. Motor vehicle trade was the only sector of trade where sales increased in 2015, by 2.0 per cent from the previous year. Thus, in total trade, sales decreased by 2.6 per cent in 2015 compared to 2014.
