You asked
In relation to the Retail sales Index (tables 3 and tables 4) I am looking for information about watches & jewellery with a non-seasonally adjusted process of calculation.
I would like to get a better understanding of the retail sales reality in this industry, that will not be blurred by 4-weeks seasonal adjustments.
In 2018, official retail trends for watches and Jewellery stores are +7.9% vs. 2017 (table 2A – seasonally adjusted). Conversely, other sources (GFK panel, Swiss watch Exports) provide totally different trends, respectively 0% and -4.4%.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Data relating to watches and jewellery are published on a non-seasonally adjusted basis within tables 3 and 4 of the RSI Reference Tables:
These tables are released monthly with the latest data, with the next publication due on the 15th of February.
With regards to the difference between the ONS estimates and those of other sources, this will be caused by the different methodology used by each individual sources, to give a clearer picture of the methodology used by the ONS I have attached a link to the RSI QMI document which provides further detail on this:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/methodologies/retailsalesindexrsiqmi