The General Retailers and Traders Union expressed its doubts on the validity of the figures issued yesterday by Eurostat on the volume of retail trade in EU Member States.

Contacted yesterday by The Malta Business Weekly, the director general of the GRTU, Vince Farrugia, said that the retail trade figures published are inconsistent.

On 7 January, Eurostat, supplied with the information by the National Statistics Office, reported that the change in volume of percentage retail trade when compared with the same month of the previous year was -10.8 per cent in July, -16.9 per cent in August and -19.6 per cent in September. In the report published yesterday, these figures were then changed to -6.5 per cent in July, -10.9 per cent in August and -10.9 per cent in September. The latest report also included the rates for the last quarter of 2009. In October the retail trade rate was of -7.9, in November -4.7 per cent and in December -9.8 per cent.

“If the latest report is correct, it proves that the sample survey conducted by GRTU is correct because we calculated a 10 per cent to a 15 per cent drop of retail trade over the Christmas period but we cannot rely on Eurostat statistics. It further reflects the actual performance of the economy and unfortunately the Gross Domestic Product calculations are also based on these figures,” said Mr Farrugia.

Unlike those of Malta, the statistics of other countries remained the same.

“The credibility of the figures does not hold because when they are compared to those of previous reports these are changed. Therefore a real analysis cannot be made leaving businesspeople not knowing where they stand,” explained Mr Farrugia.

According to the eurostat report, if December 2009 is compared to November 2009, the volume of retail trade remained stable in the euro area and fell by 0.2 per cent in the EU Member States. In November retail trade decreased by 0.5 per cent in both zones.

In December 2009, compared with December 2008, the retail sales index dropped by 1.6 per cent in the euro area and by one per cent in the Member States.