Retail trade in large and medium sized stores (non-specialised) grew in the third quarter of the year by 5.5% in nominal terms. Once the effect of price rises is discounted, the variation in the inter-annual rate came to 2.4% with regard to the same quarter the previous year.
Traditional retail trade (specialised) increased nominal sales by 4.1% in the third quarter of 2002 with regard to the same period in 2001. This nominal increase, once the effect of price rises is discounted, came to 2.6% in real terms.
Personnel employed in the retail trade sector fell by 2.0%
in the third quarter of 2002 with regard to the previous quarter. The decrease
in employment occurred in specialised retail trade or traditional sector (-2.9%),
in contrast with the non-specialised, which increased 0.7%.
By Provinces, the highest increase in the third quarter in
nominal sales by the retail sector was registered in Gipuzkoa, with 5.3% inter-annual
growth, due to the increase in non-specialised retail trade (9.1%). This is
followed by Bizkaia with a positive variation of 4.6% in the general index,
while Alava obtained more moderate growth of 2.4%.
In real terms, inter-annual sales grew in the three provinces
over this tirad quarter of the year: 3.3% in Gipuzkoa, 2.6% in Bizkaia and 0.4%
in Alava.
With regard to personnel employed in the retail trade sector
in the first three quarters of 2002, there was an accumulated increase (with
regard to the same period the previous year) in Alava (5.1%) and Gipuzkoa (0.7%),
while in Bizkaia there was a slight decrease of 0.8%.