Retail trade in medium and large stores (non-specialised) grew 4.9% in the fourth quarter of the year in nominal terms. Once the effect of the rise in prices is discounted, the variation in the inter-annual rate is 0.7% with regard to the same quarter the previous year.
Traditional retail trade (specialised) increased nominal sales by 3.1% in the fourth quarter of 2002 with regard to the same period in 2001. This nominal increase, once the effect of the rise in prices is discounted, becomes 2.0% in real terms.
Personnel employed in the retail trade sector registered 2.9% growth in the fourth quarter of 2002 with regard to the previous quarter. The increase in employment occurred mainly in specialised or traditional retail trade (3.8%), as in the non-specialised sector the increase was only 0.1%.
By Provinces, the highest growth in nominal sales by the retail sector in the fourth quarter corresponded to Bizkaia, with a 5.0% inter-annual increase in the general index, followed by Alava with a positive variation of 2.8%, while Gipuzkoa obtained more modest growth of 2.0%.
For the whole of 2002 accumulated growth in sales in the retail sector by Provinces showed higher growth in Bizkaia, with an increase of 4.0%, than in Alava and Gipuzkoa, which increased sales by 2.3% and 2.2%, respectively.
With regard to personnel employed in the retail trade sector in 2002, there was a 0.5% accumulated growth with regard to the previous year for the whole of the A.C. of the Basque Country and it is reflected provincially in the following way: 3.0% increase in Alava and 0.6% in Gipuzkoa, while in Bizkaia there was a slight decrease of 0.2%.