Actual (Oct): -0.1 % m/m, 0.6 % y/y
Consensus: -0.2 % y/y
Previous (Sep): 0.0 % m/m, 0.3 % y/y
Hungary´s retail trade has surprised with another year-on-year growth, while a decrease was expected. However, the retail sales have slightly decreased over the month. Sales of fuels, books and pharmaceutical goods dropped and pushed down the headline figure. Also the sales of food were slightly lower compared with the previous month. On the other hand, we can see a significant sales growth in the areas of textiles, household equipment, second-hand goods. The Internet sales keep a strong growth too.
The retail sales have posted a third modest y-o-y growth in a row, which is good news given the low expectations. However, the labor market does not provide conditions for a stronger growth of sales. The whole-year change should be close to zero in 2011. The data are unlikely to influence the monetary policy.