After two months of successive increases, volume sales from the French retail sector slumped by 5.6 per cent in September compared to August. The Economic Observation Centre (COE) at the Paris Chamber of Commerce, which compiled the data, said that the decline in sales was seen across every store format.
The figures, which are corrected to account for differences in the number of working days each month and for seasonal variations, reflect what the COE said was a general malaise in the French retail sector. There was some cause for optimism, however, with sales for the third quarter of the year up 1.4 per cent compared to the second quarter.
The COE's figures show that sales from French hypermarkets and supermarkets dropped sharply in September compared to the previous month, falling 6.3 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively. Sales from department stores dropped 3.3 per cent, while convenience store volumes were down 5.6 per cent.
The overall sales figures include these four store formats and home delivery sales, although the latter category's figures are not broken down individually by the COE.
In value terms, overall sales were down 4.9 per cent compared to August, with hypermarket sales down 5.8 per cent and supermarket turnover dropping 3.2 per cent. Sales from department stores were down 1.1 per cent, while convenience store sales were 5.2 per cent down on August.
The sharp fall in hypermarket sales volumes is due primarily to unusually high sales growth during the summer months which the sector was unable to maintain into the autumn.
However, the decline was not entirely due to an unusually good summer, the COE stressed, adding that it was also indicative of an overall downturn in sales which was likely to spread to the entire food retail chain as the year progressed.