Page 98 - economic report 2021

SALES FIGURES COMPARED WITH THE SAME PERIOD IN THE PREVIOUS YEAR - RETAIL TRADE
Chart 12.4

Total retail trade Food Hygiene & health Large retailers
Balance: Dif erence between opposing responses (posit ve and negat ve), as a percentage.
Source: Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of Andorra.

increase in online sales that was encouraged by the pandemic, and only partial recovery in the
numbers of foreign visitors buying in Andorra. Specifically, the number of employees in the
retail sector shrank 9.0%, to 4,652, the lowest figure in the historical series which started in
1991. On the other hand, a positive figure for the sector is the increase in the number of retail
establishments, which reached 1,423 (24 establishments more than in 2020). The fact that
there are more establishments but less employees means that the establishments are more
digitalised and need fewer workers and/or they are smaller establishments on average. As well
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as the fall in employment, in 2021 the average wage of employees in the retail sector also fell
4.2%, to around €1,732.

Electricity consumption in the commercial distribution sector saw an increase of 10.7% (solely
FEDA data), which partially offset the decrease in 2020 (-17.1%) caused by closures and
restrictions in some establishments. Another benchmark indicator for analysing the trend in
commerce is imports of goods, because most products sold by Andorran retailers are imported.
All in all, imports are still 4% lower than the level in 2019, a figure that reflects that the sector has
not completely recovered pre-pandemic levels of activity.
The Andorran economy: developments in the main sectors | XII. Services

Data from the Chamber’s business climate Despite the improvement, retail trade
survey confirm that retail trade showed clear is below pre-pandemic f gures.
signs of improvement in 2021, especially from
the second quarter, in which it entered a new
phase of fewer restrictions and progressive reactivation of tourist activity, but still at very modest
rates and below pre-pandemic figures, with a volume of sales that was clearly not enough to offset
the exceptional fall in revenue in 2020. So, retailers indicated a year-on-year average increase in
turnover of 10%, contrasting with the 25% decline in 2020, accompanied by a fairly stable trend
in numbers of employees in most businesses in the sector.

The results of the survey in the second half of 2021 confirm this gradual improvement. In fact, the
number of businesses that qualified business activity as good was larger than those who stated
the opposite (39% vs 17% of the total), a dynamic that had not been seen in the previous three
half years and which denotes a moderate recovery in activity.

By subsectors, the improvement in business was general to all branches of commerce in the
second half of 2021 (not on annual average). However, note the comparatively more optimistic