Sweden’s retail sales grow in May, likely to decelerate in future

Sweden’s retail trade sales volume grew 4.6 percent in May on a year-on-year basis, while it rose 1.7 percent on a sequential basis, according to Statistics Sweden. Consensus projection was for retail sales to grow 0.7 percent month-on-month and 3.2 percent year-on-year. Moreover, previous few months’ data was revised. The trend has shifted from flat in the past few months to positive.

Delving into details, retail trade for consumables such as goods sold in specialized grocery stores and in departmental stores, grew 2.5 percent year-on-year in May. Meanwhile, retail trade for durables, such as in furniture stores, clothing stores, mail order houses and second-hand goods stores, grew 6.1 percent.

Retail sales in the March to May period grew 0.5 percent as compared to the prior three months of December to February. However, growth in Sweden’s retail sales is likely to decelerate, said Nordea Bank in a research report. Retail sales’ short-term indicators have deteriorated further in the first half of 2016. This, along with decelerating housing market is expected to pull down retail sales growth, according to Nordea Bank.

Meanwhile, Sweden has recorded a trade deficit of SEK 2.1 billion in May, as compared with the net trade surplus of SEK 1.8 billion registered in May 2015, stated Statistics Sweden. Sweden printed SEK 96.9 billion in value of exports in May 2016, whereas the imports value came in at SEK 99 billion. On a year-on-year basis, exports rose 1 percent in terms of value, whereas imports grew 5 percent.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the net trade surplus came in at SEK 0.2 billion in May 2016, as compared with SEK 0.3 billion in April and March 2016. In the January to May period, Sweden’s exports value dropped 1 percent year-on-year to SEK 482.6 billion, whereas imports value rose 1 percent to SEK 477.2 billion. However, in recent months, trend in both variables has been quite weak, noted Nordea Bank.