Retail trade in the Canary Islands registered an average increase in its sales of 1.6% in 2021, while employment fell by an average of 3% during the past year, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE). At the national level, retail trade registered an average increase in its sales of 3.2% in 2021, its largest increase since the 2016 financial year, when they rebounded by 3.9%. After the 6.8% drop in sales in 2020, retail trade returned to positive annual rates in 2021, thus noting the progressive recovery of economic activity.
With the arrival of ómicron, the archipelago registered a fall in sales of 0.4% in the annual rate in December, a figure less pronounced than the national average, which fell by 3.3%. Sales fell at an annual rate in all autonomous communities in December. The smallest decreases were recorded in the Canary Islands (-0.4%), Andalusia and the Community of Madrid (both with -1.8%). For its part, employment in retail trade increased in 17 communities at an annual rate.
In the last month of 2021, retail sales registered a year-on-year decrease of 3.3%, compared to the 6.2% advance in the month of November. December's is the largest year-on-year fall in this indicator since last February.
As for employment, the sector registered an average increase in employment of 0.6% in 2021, in contrast to the 2.4% decline it experienced in the year of Covid. The rebound of 2021 is four tenths lower than that registered in 2019 and 2018, when employment in retail trade grew at average annual rates of 1%.
