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Breaking stories
Calls for government action as retail sales fall
SALES of cars, petrol and clothes all fell last month, as did sales at the country’s pubs.
By Niamh Hennessy
A back-to-school month resulted in retail sales falling almost 4% in the last year and are down by 0.8% last month alone, according to the CSO. Excluding car sales, the volume of retail sales dropped 3.4% in September from a year ago and were 0.2% lower month-on- month.
Car sales were down 3.4% last month while fuel sales fell 2%. Sales at bars fell 0.1% last month and are down 6.6% over the year.
Economists expect retail sales to fall 1.9% this year according to the latest Reuters poll.
Retail Excellence Ireland (REI) said the industry is in crisis, while other industry groups have called for government action.
REI chief executive, David Fitzsimons, said: “Given how bleak the past 12 months have been for retail, we had expected to see some pick up in the September figures. Instead we are faced with continued serious decline in sales levels. September was the 43rd month of consecutive retail sales decline.”
He said continued uncertainty over the euro crisis and further job loses helped keep consumer confidence at record low levels.
Mr Fitzsimons also said: “September was also back-to-school and college month and this placed significant financial pressure on a large number of households, resulting in many other discretionary sectors suffering.”
Chambers Ireland said there no case for increasing VAT in Budget 2012.
Deputy chief executive, Sean Murphy, said: “Consumer spending is still weak. The Government must support the domestic economy in the period to Christmas by providing assurances as early as possible that VAT will not be increased.
“This issue is particularly important for the border region where increases in the VAT rate had very detrimental impacts on trade — and wider VAT receipts — in the border region as consumer spending migrated North. We cannot afford a repeat of this in Christmas 2011,” Mr Murphy said.
The only categories that showed month-on-month increases in the volume of retail sales in September were electrical goods (up 2.7%) and department stores (up 0.3%).
Furniture and lighting sales were down 4.2% and motor sales dropped 3.4%. Food, beverages and tobacco sales were down 2.8%.
Bloxham chief economist, Alan McQuaid, said the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan should err on the side of caution in the forthcoming budget and deliver no more than the €3.6 billion promised in Ireland’s bailout programme.
Small business group, ISME also said retailers were being “wiped out” the length and breadth of the country, due to a deteriorating domestic economy, driven by consumer uncertainty and ever increasing costs.