September 14, 2015

In August, nominal retail sales grew 10.8% over the same month last year, which was up from July’s 10.5% increase. The reading, which overshot the 10.6% increase market had expected, mostly reflected an acceleration in sales of automobiles as well as in food and beverages.



Compared to the previous month, retail sales expanded a seasonally-adjusted 0.86% in August (July: +0.79% month-on-month). As a result of the disappointing figures observed at the outset of the year, annual average growth in retail sales fell from July’s 11.0% to 10.9% in August, which represented the lowest reading since April 2004.

The government set a retail sales growth target of 13.0% for this year. FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast participants expect retail sales to increase 11.1% in 2015, which is unchanged from last month’s estimate. In 2016, the panel also foresees an expansion in retail sales of 11.1%.