Cyprus retail trade slides 5.4% in September

Retail trade volumes in Cyprus slumped by 5.4% over the year earlier in September according to provisional figures, having dropped by 2.9% in August and 6.7% in July. The main fall, as Financial Mirror reports, came from electrical goods and furniture, which fell compared with the year earlier period by 20.9%, followed by automotive fuel in specialised stores, which fell by 12.6%. For the first nine months of the year retail trade is provisionally estimated to have fallen by 3.6%. Meanwhile, retail sales values excluding auto fuels are provisionally estimated to have fallen by 2.3% over the year earlier in September and by 2% in the first nine months of the year. The collapse in consumer demand is also reflected in registrations of motor vehicles, which dropped by 34.5% over the year earlier in October to 1,903. In January-October 2012, motor registrations dropped by 27.3% over the year earlier to 22,511, having fallen by 17.6% in the whole of 2011. Private saloon cars fell in the first ten months by 24.7%. There has also been a slump in road transport, which fell by 18.8% in April-June 2012 compared with the corresponding period of 2011 according to the Statistical Service.