Sweden's retail trade dropped 1.1 percent from a year earlier in December 2018, following an upwardly revised 1.1 percent growth in the previous month. It was the steepest decline in retail trade since April 2010, with sales via mail order houses or via internet falling the most (-20.9 percent vs -12.1 percent), followed by information and communication equipment (-2.9 percent vs 13.3 percent), other household equipment (-1.1 percent vs 3.6 percent) and other goods (-0.9 percent vs 1.2 percent). By contrast, trade at stalls or markets jumped 17.1 percent (vs 6.5 percent in November) and sales of cultural and recreation goods rose 2.4 percent (vs 3.7 percent in November). On a monthly basis, retail trade slumped 1.4 percent, the most since March 2013, after a revised 1 percent advance in November. Retail Sales YoY in Sweden averaged 2.82 percent from 1992 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 11 percent in May of 2000 and a record low of -7.70 percent in December of 1992.
Retail Sales YoY in Sweden is expected to be 2.50 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Retail Sales YoY in Sweden to stand at 2.40 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Sweden Retail Sales YoY is projected to trend around 2.20 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.