High mail order sales in January

The volume index of non-store retail sales, which includes mail order sales among other things, rose by fully 15.2 per cent in January 1999 compared with January 1998. The value index of mail order sales increased by 21.1 per cent in this period.

The volume index of retail sales rose by a total of 1.4 per cent from January 1998 to January 1999. In this context retail sales do not include motor vehicles and petrol. The seasonally adjusted volume index of retail sales increased by 4.3 per cent from December 1998 to January 1999. There is one less shopping day in January this year than there was in January last year.

The major industrial group that includes clothes, footwear, electrical appliances, furniture, books and building materials among others, had an increase in its sales volume of 4 per cent. The volume of retail sales of pharmaceutical and medical goods and cosmetic and toilet articles, rose by 1.3 per cent during the same period.

Retail sales of food, beverages and tobacco in specialized stores declined by 3.1 percent from January 1998 to January 1999. The volume of retail sales in non-specialized stores, in which food, beverages and tobacco predominate, declined by 1.2 per cent in the same period.

New Statistics
Index of retail sales, January 1999.
The statistics are published monthly in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. For more information, contact: Solveig.Nygardseter@ssb.no, tel.: +47 62 88 51 74, or Aud.Midtsundstad@ssb.no, tel.: +47 62 88 54 37. For more information about the goods consuption index, contact: Monica.Henriksen@ssb.no, tel.: +47 21 09 46 99, or Kristian.Gimming@ssb.no, tel.: +47 21 09 44 17.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 10, 1999