The economic situation of trade in 2010

In 2010, the trade industry started recovering from the previous year's slowdown. Although the recovery of sales in volume was marked in the wholesale trade industry (+ 2,8 %), it remained insufficient to compensate for the strong drop of 2009. Overall, the recovery was weaker in the retail trade and in the motor trade industries (+ 1,6 % and + 1,2 %). Whereas sales of the non-food retail trade sector grew markedly again, primarily food retailing and craft sectors remained almost stable overall. Salaried employment in the trade industries also started recovering slowly in 2010, although a little more slowly than in the rest of the economy. As in 2009, firm creations in the trade industry were steady, due to the new regime of “autoentrepreneur” (one-person business).