Jerome E. Horton Says Taxable Sales in California Declined 16.2% in 1Q09

Seventh Consecutive Quarter Decline is the Longest Consecutive Slide since World War II.

Jerome E. Horton, Vice Chair of the California State Board of Equalization (BOE), announced last week that taxable sales in California decreased 16.2 percent in the first quarter of 2009, reflecting the depth of the national recession.

Taxable sales in California continued their unprecedented decline, totaling only $107.2 billion during the first quarter of 2009, a drop of 20.7 billion from the first quarter of 2008. The year-over-year decline in quarterly taxable sales continued for the seventh consecutive quarter, the longest consecutive slide since World War II.

In Los Angeles, taxable sales declined by 16.3 percent from the same quarter a year before. In Long Beach, the State´s sixth largest city by population turned in the best performance of the 10 largest cities in California, dropping 9.6 percent from the previous year.

In constant dollar terms, taxable sales decreased by 13.1 percent over the same quarter a year ago. The California Taxable Sales Deflator measured an inflation rate of -3.5 percent for the first quarter of 2009. In comparison, the California CPI rose 0.1 percent. Constant-dollar taxable sales have also declined since the third quarter of 2007. The first quarter of 2009 decline was the steepest on record. However, personal income declined 1.6 percent. This is consistent with typical growth patterns during periods of economic weakness.

Taxable Sales in California is a quarterly report on retail sales activity in California, as measured by transactions subject to sales and use tax. It includes data about statewide taxable sales by type of business, as well as data about taxable sales in all California cities and counties from the first quarter of 2000 through the first quarter of 2009 and can be viewed on the BOE website here.