In the last three-month period (February-April), the volume of retail trade in calendar and seasonally adjusted figures increased by 0.4 percent compared with the previous three-month period (November-January). Retail sales in durables increased by 0.7 percent and retail sales in consumables (excluding Systembolaget) increased by 1.4 percent.

In April, the year-over-year growth rate in the volume of retail trade was positive 4.7 percent in calendar adjusted figures. Retail sales in durables increased by 5.5 percent while retail sales in consumables (excluding Systembolaget) increased by 3.7 percent.

In constant prices and non-calendar adjusted figures, retail trade volume increased by 3.8 percent in April compared with the corresponding period a year ago. Retail sales in durables increased by 6.4 percent and retail sales in consumables (excluding Systembolaget) increased by 1.4 percent.

Turnover in retail trade measured in current prices increased by 1.5 percent in April 2026 compared with April 2025. Retail sales in durables increased by 5.0 percent while retail sales in consumables (excluding Systembolaget) decreased by 2.5 percent.

Changes in the statistics

New method for collecting turnover data in service industries 
From April 2026, monthly calculated turnover data based on companies’ VAT returns to the Swedish Tax Agency (hereafter referred to as VAT data) will be used for small and medium-sized enterprises in the service industries (SNI 36–96). This change is part of Statistics Sweden’s (SCB) efforts to streamline statistical production, increase the use of administrative data, and reduce the reporting burden for businesses. In total, it is estimated that nearly 4,000 companies in the service industries will no longer need to report turnover data each month.

For larger companies, turnover data will continue to be collected directly from the businesses. The reason is that VAT data in these cases often does not provide a sufficiently accurate representation of companies’ turnover.

VAT data will not be used in the industries SNI 68 (real estate activities), 85–88 (education and health and social care), and 92 (gambling and betting). The reason is that the consistency between VAT data and actual turnover is insufficient, partly because some activities in these industries are exempt from VAT.

Consequences for the published statistics 
The change is expected to lead to improved quality in the estimates of turnover and production within the service industries. An important effect of using VAT data is that sampling error decreases, since the statistics are based on a full enumeration of all companies in the sampling frame.

At the same time, problems with extreme values (outliers) are expected to largely disappear, as the expansion factors will be close to one. This contributes to more stable estimates.

However, there is a potential risk that other types of errors, so-called non-sampling errors, may become more significant than before.