Irish retail sales volume falls by 0.7% for June 2012
Irish retail sales volume fell 0.7% in June 2012 according to the Central Statistics office.
The volume of retail sales (i.e. excluding price effects) decreased by 0.7% in June 2012 when compared with May 2012 and there was an annual fall of 5.5%. If Motor Trades are excluded, the volume of retail sales dipped by 1.5% in June 2012 when compared with May 2012, while there was also an annual decrease of 1.7% when compared to June 2011.
The sectors with the largest month on month volume falls are Food beverages & Tobacco (-9.7%), Hardware Paints & Glass (-4.8%), Fuel (-3.9%). A monthly increase was seen in Electrical Goods (2.9%), and in Books, Newspapers and Stationery (2.6%).
The value of retail sales declined by 1.3% in June 2012 when compared with May 2012 and there was an annual decrease of 4.9%. If Motor Trades are excluded, there was a monthly decrease of 2.1% in the value of retail sales and an annual decrease of 1.0%.
Dermot O’Leary of goody commented: Weather hits June sales – Weather effects are mainly to blame for the volatility in retail sales trends over recent months. Following growth in core sales of 1.3% mom in May, sales volumes fell by 1.5% mom in June in what was an exceptionally poor month for weather. On an annual basis core sales were down by 1.7% relative to the 1.1% annual gain in May. Over the quarter, the 1% annual fall in core retail sales gives a pretty good indication of the continued underlying weakness in Irish consumer spending. Including the motor trade, the sales performance was much weaker – down 5.5% yoy in June and -3.3% yoy in Q2 overall.
Motor trade sales volumes down 13% yoy - Over the second quarter as a whole, the motor trade sector is the weakest performing, falling by 13% yoy. The second weakest sector was the hardware, paints and glass category (our proxy for DIY).
Ten out of thirteen categories in decline – Of the thirteen categories reported by the CSO, only three witnessed increases on an annual basis in Q2. Within this, only one category – electrical goods – witnessed a meaningful increase in sales volumes over the past twelve months (+11% yoy). However, this increase has come at the expense of significant price reductions, with the value of sales up by only 5% yoy. Price deflation is still a feature in eight of the retail sales categories, highlighting the still tough environment for retailers.
Familiar headwinds to consumer spending - The return of economic growth to Ireland is still exclusively due to net exports with the outlook for domestic demand remaining poor over the next two years. With the collapse in investment close to complete, the biggest driver of domestic demand will be consumption. The headwinds of weak employment and earnings growth and deleveraging continue to weigh on prospects for consumer spending.
Retail Ireland, an IBEC sectoral group, said the CSO Retail Sales Index for June shows the continued difficulty retailers are facing. The annual fall in retail sales accelerated again in June to 1.7%. Sales since Christmas are down by 3%. Government must do more to stimulate demand, unlock savings and get consumers spending again.
Commenting on the figures released today, Retail Ireland Director Stephen Lynam said:“It is difficult to overstate the devastation felt in the retail sector. Sales have fallen by almost every measure. The hardware and garden sector has been particularly badly hit, with a fall of 10.4% on the foot of a particularly bad summer. Furniture, books and clothing are all also well down.
“The only positive news is the increase in electrical sales, which may be partly explained by the digital TV switch over and investment in new sets for Euro 2012 and the Olympics. Supermarket sales have also held up.
“Since the Government increased VAT, the downward trend in retail sales has hit with renewed force. While the targets for VAT collection may be being met, this is only happening due to higher VAT receipts on utility bills and professional charges – items consumers cannot cut back on. When it comes to discretionary spending, consumers have voted with their feet and stayed out of the shops.
“Uncertainty is another factor contributing to weak sales. Consumer sentiment remains near record-lows and data released by the CSO this week shows that the household savings ratio increased in the first quarter of 2012. More must be done to stimulate demand, unlock savings and get consumers spending. Otherwise, a difficult winter for retailers, and the domestic economy, awaits.”
Brendan McGovern Leitrim teenager found guilty of manslaughter
A Carrigallen teenager with intellectual difficulties was found guilty of killing the pensioner he claimed sexually abused him when he was younger.
Brendan McGovern of Killahurk, Carrigallen, Leitrim was on trial at the Central Criminal Court, charged with murdering 73-year-old John Golden in Co Cavan on October 6, 2010. The 19-year-old pleaded not guilty, but admitted assaulting the pensioner in his home in Nedd, Doogarry, Killeshandra.
The jury found him not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter after two hours deliberating on Thursday, July 26.
The five-day trial heard that the pensioner was rushed to hospital on September 7th 2010, after a neighbour found him unconscious under his bed in his prefabricated house. He died of septicaemia and other hospital-related complications a month later.
The teenager said he had gone to Mr Golden’s home to confront him about his continued taunts. However, he said that Mr Golden presumed he had arrived for sex and handed him a condom and took off his trousers. The defendant said this made him angry, that he put the condom on his fist and punched the pensioner in his back passage before kicking and beating him.
The trial heard that Mr Golden had been the subject of a garda investigation during the 1990s, when he admitted showing pornographic videos to young teenaged boys.The trial also heard from a clinical psychologist, who said the accused would have difficulties thinking through the consequences of his actions due to Borderline Intellectual Functioning.
The prosecution had argued that even if the jury took the view that John Golden had interfered with the accused, no person had the right to take the law into his own hands.
“We don’t live in the Wild West,” said Bernard Condon SC, prosecuting, in his closing speech.
“If John Golden was a sex abuser, he was entitled to a fair trial,” he continued. “What he was not entitled to happen to him was to be beaten on the ground in his bedroom, violated in the way he was, and left on the flat of his back for several hours.”
Mr Condon said that there may be portions of his life which the jury found unpleasant, but that did not mean he was not entitled to fairness. He said that sexual assault was a common experience in our society, but assured the jury that a verdict of murder was not an approval of sexual assault.
“You’re not here to approve of the life of John Golden. You’re here to decide if Brendan McGovern killed him,” said the prosecutor. “You’re not here to right other wrongs.”
“This is a difficult case. There’s sympathy swirling,” he said, adding that this would not be helpful in their deliberations.
He said there was ample evidence to convict the teenager of murder.
Patrick Gageby SC, defending, said there was no question of justifying a beating to someone, ‘no-matter what he has done to you’. “I’m not inviting you to apply emotional standards here, other than your knowledge of human nature, of young people being abused and how they might respond,” he said. He pointed out that Mr Golden’s cause of death was given as a hospital-acquired illness and noted that his original head and rectal injuries were healing when he died. “The prosecution must prove that Brendan McGovern caused the death of John Golden in the legal sense,” he said.
He also noted that the definition of murder stated that a person was presumed to intend the natural and probable consequences of his actions, but that this could be rebutted. “Utterly different considerations apply when you know where Brendan McGovern functions on the intellectual scale,” he said, adding that his client was legally a child at the time.
“The issue is not what the reasonable man would do,” he said. “The mental condition of the accused would clearly indicate that he would not foresee matters as others would.” He said that maybe a boy of better abilities would have gone to the gardai or his parents.
“That’s not Brendan McGovern,” he said. He said that if the jury was satisfied that his client had caused Mr Golden’s death and had intent, it was time to examine provocation, which can reduce murder to manslaughter.
He said there was no violence until Mr Golden took off his trousers.“What precipitated the violence was the way he was treated by the man who had sexually abused him in the past,” he said.
“Mr Golden had taken off his trousers and expected that the person he’d abused as a boy was going to pleasure him sexually,” he said, suggesting that it would be amazing if he didn’t lose self control then.
“Brendan McGovern didn’t do anything until he behaved as though all his Sundays had come at once,” he said. “That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
The jury of six men and five women reached a unanimous verdict of guilty of manslaughter.
Mr Justice Carney remanded Brendan McGovern on continuing bail for sentencing in October.
Irish Gas prices set to rise again
Bord Gais Energy is the only company to have its prices controlled by the CER and the increase, if granted, will add around ?60 on to the average household’s annual gas bill.
There was more bad news for Irish consumers today as Bord Gáis Energy announced that it has applied to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) for a 7.54 per cent rise in its residential gas tariffs from October.
The price increase is being sought despite a fall in the wholesale price of gas on international markets in recent months but the company insisted it was unavoidable.
Bord Gáis Energy is the only company to have its prices controlled by the CER and the increase, if granted, will add around €60 on to the average household’s annual gas bill. It comes after the company was granted a 22 per cent increase in residential gas prices this time last year.
The cumulative impact of the two increases will see the average bill go up from about €700 a year to close to €1,000 in just 12 months. The company has defended the price increases by insisting that domestic gas prices in the Republic are still below the EU average.
The CER published a public consultation paper on the gas price increase today and it is almost certain to confirm it in early September.
Bord Gáis Energy said the increase was beyond its control because a weak euro had seen its costs spike while it was also paying more in gas network tariffs.
Gas prices have fallen slightly on world markets in recent weeks, but the prices Bord Gáis Energy has had to pay have increased because the value of the euro has decreased considerably over the last year. It buys virtually all of its gas from Britain and is required to pay in sterling.
The upward pressure on network tariffs is due to a reduction in gas demand and higher financing costs for Bord Gáis Networks, both of which are related to the recession at home and abroad. The CER assured consumers it would only allow “efficiently-incurred costs from BG Energy to be passed through to customers”.
It said that if the gas price rise is granted “it would be with regret given the current difficult economic climate”.
It pointed out, however, that there had been significant gas price rises across many EU countries over the last two years and that Eurostat data shows Ireland’s residential gas prices are generally lower than the EU average.
“We expect Ireland’s gas prices to remain relatively competitive, even if an increase is decided on for this October,” the CER said in a statement. It also encouraged consumers to shop-around for the best tariff and service deal.
Bord Gáis Energy said it has “worked hard to keep the increase to a minimum but has no control over either wholesale prices or networks charges, which account collectively for 90 per cent of the total costs of supply”.
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