Which month had highest percentage decline in monthly sales as compared to previous month for the Apparel category?

We don't need to calculate exact percentages - we can compare the fractions directly to find the largest one.

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From the Apparel sales data, let's identify consecutive months where sales decreased:

Month Transition	Sales Change (Lakhs)	Change Type	Analysis
January → February	262 → 279	Increase (+17)	-
February → March	279 → 236	Decrease (-43)	Significant decrease - Consider
March → April	236 → 258	Increase (+22)	-
April → May	258 → 249	Decrease (-9)	Ignore - Minimal decrease while in the 250s range
May → June	249 → 230	Decrease (-19)	Ignore - Same reason as May
June → July	230 → 244	Increase (+14)	-
July → August	244 → 252	Increase (+8)	-
August → September	252 → 288	Increase (+36)	-
September → October	288 → 222	Decrease (-66)	Much higher decrease - Consider with March
October → November	222 → 228	Increase (+6)	-
November → December	228 → 221	Decrease (-7)	Ignore - Same reason as May

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$\% \text{ Decline} = \frac{\text{Previous Month Sales} - \text{Current Month Sales}}{\text{Previous Month Sales}} \times 100\%$

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February -> March:

$\% \text{ Decline} = \frac{279 - 236}{279} \times 100\% = \boxed{\frac{43}{279}} \times 100\% = 15.41\%$

September -> October:

$\% \text{ Decline} = \frac{288 - 222}{288} \times 100\% = \boxed{\frac{66}{288}} \times 100\% = 22.92\%$

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Comparing via fractions -> March: $\dfrac{43}{279}$ and October: $\dfrac{66}{288}$

• October has a numerator (66) that is about 1.5 times larger than March's numerator (43)
• October has a denominator (288) that is only about 1.03 times larger than March's denominator (279)

Since the numerator grows much faster than the denominator, October's fraction $\frac{66}{288}$ is larger than March's fraction $\frac{43}{279}$.

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October had the highest percentage decline in Apparel sales, dropping from 288 lakhs in September to 222 lakhs in October.