Year-on-year estimates of value of retail trade index showed a drop for September 2018, decreasing by 2.5% compared with September 2017. The quantity sold in retail trade fell too, contracting by 2.8% compared with the same month a year earlier.

On the month, the retail trade indices decreased compared with August 2018, dropping by 0.8% in value terms and by 0.7% in volume terms.

Despite a fall in both year-on-year and month-on-month growth rates, the underlying pattern in the data, as suggested by the three-month on three-month movement, continued to show growth. While the value was up 0.3%, the volume was up 0.2%.

The retail trade index for large scale distribution was down 1.2% and small scale distribution decreased by 4.3% when compared with the same period a year earlier. The value of sales made online rose by 2.7% compared with September 2017.