Retail Sales Dropped 0.7 Percent in December
The seasonally-adjusted volume of retail sales decreased by 0.7 percent in the month of December, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office on Friday. However, December’s sales are still up 3.4 percent compared with the previous year.
Excluding motor trades, there was a decrease of 2.7 percent in the volume of retail sales in December 2016 when compared with November and there was an increase of 2.0 percent in the annual figure.
Davy Research have said that Black Friday sales artificially depressed December’s figures, and that the figures were indicative of a continued strong recovery, predicting that consumer spending to grow a further 3 percent in 2017.
The sectors with the largest monthly volume decreases were electrical goods (-22.7 percent), hardware, paints & glass (-4.1 percent) and fuel (-2.4 percent).
There was a decrease of 0.6 percent in the value of retail sales in December 2016 when compared with November and there was an annual increase of 1.2% when compared with December 2015.
Provisional estimates for the year 2016 show that the volume of retail sales increased by 5.9% in 2016 when compared to 2015 and by 3.8% in value terms. If motor trades are excluded, there was an increase of 4.3% in the volume of retail sales and an increase of 2.1% in the value.
