The differences have been unusually pronounced over the past year, with consumption of goods increasing by around 1¾ per cent, compared with growth of around 4 per cent in the consumption of services (Graph 10).
8  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Graph 10  The recent relatively weak growth in the consumption of goods has led to very subdued trading conditions in many parts of the retail sector. In contrast, conditions have been better in a number of the service parts of the economy.