Comparability

Comparability - geographical

Every month, figures are submitted to the statistical office of EU, Eurostat. These include special industry aggregates which are not published nationally. Data for all EU countries can be found in the Eurostat database. The statistics are produced following the common guidelines and principles of an EU regulation, so the results are comparable.

Comparability over time

The statistics have been compiled since 1939, but they are not suited for long term time series analysis because of structural changes in the retail trade sector. The sample design and the calculation methods have been adjusted several times, last time in May 2012, where the time series back to 2000 where recalculated using new methods. More on that complete revision can be found in this publication (in Danish)

In Statbank Denmark historical time series going back to 1979 can be found, but due to differences in methodology and classifications, comparisons to the current time series going back to 2000 is not advisable.

Coherence - cross domain

Other short term statistics also covers the turnover development in the retail trade sector. Below, a list is included, describing the relationship between the retail trade index and the other statistics.

Purchases and sales by enterprises Apart from being a register-based set of statistics with complete coverage (in theory), the VAT statistics are different from the retail trade index when it comes to the turnover definition. The turnover in the VAT statistics includes all sales subject to VAT, whereas the turnover submitted for the retail trade statistics only includes turnover from sales to private persons (retail trade turnover). The fact that VAT statistics are based on the continuous VAT payments from the enterprises in principle means that any changes in the population have immediate effect on the figures. The same cannot be said of the retail trade index. Moreover, small and medium sized retail trade enterprises do not submit VAT payments monthly, so the survey-based retail trade index will have more data for calculation of the monthly growth rates.

Consumption of goods in national accounts The quarterly national accounts include figures on the consumption broken down by types of goods. The private consumption of certain types of goods is sold in retail trade enterprises, but the two indicators do not show the same development, since other sources than the retail trade index are incorporated in the private consumption figures.

Other statistics In addition to the above-mentioned statistics covering the development in total retail trade turnover, there are other indicators covering the development in parts of the private consumption:

• Monthly statistics on purchased cars based on registrations • Monthly tendency survey on retail trade • A number of trade organisations in retail trade prepare statistics based on turnover reports for the relevant industries submitted by members

Credit card turnover (”Dankort”) Each month, Nets publishes figures on the monthly turnover from Dankort transactions. They are strongly connected to the retail trade turnover figures, of course, but there are several circumstances making the two indicators develop quite differently. More on this topic can be found in this publication (in Danish) and in more detail in this paper (in Danish).

Coherence - internal

Seasonal adjustment is performed indirectly, which results in consistency between seasonally adjusted aggregates and their subcomponents. There are no other sources of possible internal inconsistency.