July bar sales volumes down 7.3%

Provisional seasonally-adjusted Central Statistics Office figures for July suggest that bar sales were down 7.3% in volume and 4.9% in value compared to July 2018.

 

 

Compared to the previous month, June, bar sales showed a decrease of 6.4% in both volume and value.

Final seasonally-adjusted figures for June indicate that bar sales volumes were down 2.2% on the same month in 2018 ‘though they were up 0.9% in value. Compared to May 2019, bar sales volumes were up 1.3% with values up 2.0%.

Over the three-month period May to July bar sales volumes fell by another 4.2% when compared with the same three-month period in 2018, with values down 1.4%. A similar 1.4% drop in bar sales volume took place when the May to July period was compared with the previous quarter February to April, with an accompanying 0.7% decline in bar sales values.

This continues a downward trend for the licensed trade over the past few quarters.

The general volume of retail sales decreased 4.3% in July when compared to June on a seasonally-adjusted basis and they decreased by 4.4% on an annual basis.