Wholesale and retail trade, structural statistics, 2012

Looking at developments in wholesale and retail trade over the last decade, the trend has been a steady growth since 2002. Years 2007 and 2008 stand out in that turnover was above trend, while the financial crisis led to a decline in turnover in 2009. In the past three years, however, the retail sector has again experienced a relatively steady growth, but with somewhat slower growth in 2012. Development in turnover during the last decade is illustrated in Figure 1.

Largest growth in Akershus

All counties experienced increased turnover from 2011 to 2012. The greatest growth was in Akershus, which had an increase in turnover of 7.9 per cent. Akershus account for 17 per cent of wholesale and retail trade turnover in Norway and is the second largest county after Oslo in terms of turnover. Together these two counties count for over two-fifths of all wholesale and retail trade turnover in Norway. This is illustrated in the pie chart in Figure 2, while Figure 3 shows the growth in turnover for the various counties from 2011 to 2012.

Considerable lower growth for motor vehicles

After a strong growth of 8.8 per cent in the previous year, turnover within trade and repair of motor vehicles increased by only 2.3 per cent from 2011 to 2012. Meanwhile, compensation of employees rose by 6.0 per cent after strong growth even last year, at 5.7 per cent. By comparison, employment increased by 1.3 and 1.7 per cent respectively in 2012 and 2011.

Stronger growth in compensation of employees for the grocery and kiosk trade

Compensation of employees in the grocery and kiosk trade increased by 6.4 per cent from 2011 to 2012. This is more than double compared to the growth in the previous year. Employment increased slightly by 1.2 per cent, but had also experienced a drop of 1.3 per cent the year before. At the same time, turnover increased by 3.7 per cent; approximately the same growth as the previous year. The grocery and kiosk trade account for almost two-fifths of retail sales in Norway. Total retail turnover amounted to NOK 427 billion in 2012; an increase of 3.1 per cent. By comparison, the retail trade sales statistics showed a growth of 3.5 per cent, while the Index of retail sales grew by 3.4 per cent.

Second consecutive year of strong growth in wholesale of machinery and equipment

Turnover in the industry group "Wholesale of machinery, equipment and supplies " increased by 9.5 per cent from 2011. This is the second consecutive year with a growth of over 9 per cent for this industry group. Although the industry group only accounts for 14 per cent of turnover in wholesale trade, it accounted for more than 28 per cent of the growth in turnover within the industry.