Monthly retail sales record high in December of KRW 2.271 trillion.. almost 20% growth
Annual retail sales of KRW 24.3739 trillion, 6.1% growth… over KRW 2 trillion per month
Korea’s pharmaceutical retail sales exceeded an average of KRW 2 trillion per month last year.
Retail sales of pharmaceuticals in 2021 started sluggishly in the aftermath of the third and fourth pandemic of COVID-19 at the beginning of the year.
Due to the base effect and the impact of the pandemic, retail sales opened in 2021 with negative growth rates while showing an increase in the pilot stages of the COVID-19 in 2020.
Sales of the pharmaceutical retail, down 2.9% from the same period of the previous year to KRW 1.84 trillion in January, shrank to KRW 1.7426 trillion, or 9.0%, in February, with the impact of the Lunar New Year holidays.
However, in March, the retail sales reached KRW 1.8906 trillion, reducing negative growth to 2.1% in April, and returned to KRW 1.9 trillion, recovering to the level of the same period last year.
Furthermore, the growth surpassed KRW 2 trillion for the first time in May, breaking away from minus that lasted four months, and continued to expand to double-digit in August.
Pharmaceutical retail sales exceeded the KRW 2.1 trillion mark in September, KRW 2.2 trillion in November, and two months later, KRW 2.271 trillion, or 18.5%, in December.
On a quarterly basis, pharmaceutical retail sales were at KRW 5.4772 trillion in the first quarter, down 5% from the first quarter of 2020, but grew by 2.1% in the second quarter to exceed KRW 6 trillion.
Retail sales expanded to double-digit growth in the third quarter, and in the fourth quarter, growth rose to 16.9%, surpassing KRW 6.6 trillion in quarterly retail sales.
The average monthly retail sales started at KRW 1.8257 trillion in the first quarter and rose sharply every quarter to KRW 2.2126 trillion in the fourth quarter.
On a semi-annual basis, retail sales reached KRW 11.5012 trillion in the first half, down 1.2% from the same period last year, but sharply rose to KRW 12.8727 trillion in the second half, a 13.7% growth.
Korea’s annual retail sales increased 6.1% year-on-year to KRW 24.3739 trillion, with a monthly average of KRW 2.3012 trillion.
