Retail sales were down 0.7% in terms of value and 0.3% in terms of volume in February 2011 when compared to February 2010 according to CSO data released yesterday.
The Books, Newspapers and Stationery sub-segment was significantly worse than the index as a whole and was down 8.3% in value and 9.0% in volume terms on the figures for February 2010.
Despite the gloomy annualized picture, the value of retail sales overall grew by 3.2% on the January 2011 figures and volume was also up 1% on January 2011.
However, disappointingly, the Books, Newspapers and Stationery sub-segment of the retail statistic was down some 9.2% in value terms and 4.5% in volume terms from January 2011.
The Books, Newspapers and Stationery sub-segment now stands at 80.3% of the 2005 figure in value terms and 70.8% in volume terms, indicating that the market for Books, Newspapers and Stationery is down 19.7% in value and 29.2% in volume.
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