Recession in retail speeding up

The volume of retail trade continued to shrink in June 2007. According to KSH data, retail turnover in the second quarter of the year was 3 per cent less than a year earlier, while the figure for June was 3.6 per cent less than in the preceding year. The total value of sales in nation-wide retail trade was HUF 2,790 billion, with food sales accounting for 50.4 per cent. Total sales in retail stores amounted to nearly HUF 516 billion in June. Food sales continued to decline, totalling 0.8 per cent less than a year earlier. While turnover in hyper markets, supermarkets and other mixed profile stores only fell by 0.2 per cent, specialised stores saw a decline in sales of 6.8 per cent compared to a year before.