XN000022-1996-12-27 — Page 16

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Compared with a year ago, sales of motor vehicles continued to record a significant increase, by 26% in value and 25% in volume.

Concurrently, sales of most other commodities also recorded increases of various magnitudes in both value and volume terms. These included miscellaneous consumer goods (12% in value and 7% in volume); consumer durable goods other than motor vehicles (6% in both value and volume); and food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco (3% in both value and volume). Sales in supermarkets also went up by 11% in value and 4% in volume.

On the other hand, sales of clothing and footwear rose by 7% in value, but went down by 2% in volume. Similarly, sales in department stores registered an increase of 4% in value, but a decrease of 3% in volume.

Besides, sales of jewellery, watches and clocks and valuable gifts dropped by 2% in value and 3% in volume. Sales of fuels continued to show a decline, by 4% in value and 9% in volume, as a result of continued shift from retail purchases to direct purchases from major fuels suppliers.

Compared with September 1996 (but bearing in mind that this comparison is affected by seasonal factors), total retail sales in October 1996 increased by 3% in value and 2% in volume.

Comparing the period from January to October 1996 with the same period in 1995, total retail sales rose by 6% in value and 1% in volume.

The volume of retail sales is derived from the value of retail sales after adjusting for price changes. The relevant components of the Consumer Price Index are used as deflators.

Table 1 presents the revised total retail sales figure for September 1996 and the provisional figure for October 1996.

Table 2 shows the value and volume indices of retail sales in October 1995, September 1996 and October 1996 for all retail outlets and by type of retail outlets, with average retail sales from October 1994 to September 1995 taken as 100. Comparisons of the October 1996 results with those for September 1996 and those for October 1995, as well as comparison of retail sales in the period from January to October of 1996 with the same period in 1995 are also given.