According to Latvijas Statistika compared to June 2007, in June retail trade turnover was down by 8.3% (working day adjusted), of which in enterprises selling mainly food fell by 6.1%, while non-food enterprises fell by 9.7%. Month on month total retail trade turnover in June was down by 2.2%
Obviously the contraction in Latvian domestic demand continues, and it is hard to see where this will now end.
The latest EU economic sentiment indicator was published this morning, and again it is down we go for the Baltics in the case of all three countries, and yet one more time:
3 comments:
and didn't lithuania post a negative retail growth number for the first time this cycle the other day?
Hi,
"and didn't lithuania post a negative retail growth number for the first time this cycle the other day?"
Well I did see what was probably the same press report that you saw, but checking the database at stats Lithuania, they say retail sales still rose by 3.1% y-o-y at constant prices. Month on month retail sales were down. But the rate of increase has been falling rapidly.
I should point out however that I do not follow the Lithuanian economy in any sort of detail, so while we can obviously see a similar pattern to what is happening in Estonia and Latvia, there are some differences of detail, and I wouldn't really like to comment in that much depth.
Hi, the interesting story continues. The government has announced some proposals to tackle the inflation part of the problem, but it seems too little, too late.
The current proposals seem to focus upon reducing the number of civil service posts, but really this means eliminating seasonal and temporary posts and positions which were free anyway but were being used to provide bonuses for people who could claim to be doing more than one job at a time!!
They also favour cutting big investment projects, including some EU (co-) funded projects, which are exactly the kind of thing that might increase productivity.
Meanwhile, the govt estimates included reduced VAT and income tax receipts, but increased social taxes, which seems an unlikely combination.
D.
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