Retail sales in January 2018 reported the slowest annual growth since March, according to provisional figures released by the Central Statistics Office today.
Volume sales increased by 1.2%, annually adjusted, while the value of sales rose by just 0.2%. This represents the smallest since March 2018, where volume and value sales dropped by 1% and 1.9% respectively compared to March 2017.
Seasonally adjusted, retail value sales fell by 0.6% compared to December, marking the third month of consecutive negative growth.
Retail volume sales fell by 1.2%, seasonally adjusted, also marking the third month of consecutive decreases.
If Motor Trades are excluded, there was an increase of 0.7% in the volume of retail sales in January 2019 when compared with December 2018, and there was an increase of 4% in the annual figure.
There was also an increase of 0.2% in the value of retail sales in the month, with an increase of 2.3% in the annual figure, again, excluding Motor Trades.
Ten-Month Low
Non-specialised stores, which includes supermarkets, saw relatively flat value and volume growth, with value sales dropping by 0.1% compared to December 2018, and volume sales marginally increasing by 0.1%.
Annually adjusted, the value sales in the category jumped by 4.4%, with volume sales rising by 5.5%.
Food, Beverage, and Tobacco sales fell by 0.7% in value terms against December, but rose by 0.6% when compared with January 2018.
The volume of Food, Beverage, and Tobacco sales also fell on a monthly basis, falling 1.5%, and fell by 1.5% compared to January 2018.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
