Skip to main content
News

Car sales push retail sales sharply higher again

By May 29, 2023No Comments

The volume of annual retail sales rose sharply again last month due to another surge in car sales, jumping 7.5% on an annual basis, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show today.

The volume of retail sales rose by 2.8% in the month

The CSO said that when the increase in motor trades was excluded, retail sales rose by 0.5% on a monthly basis, while they were 0.4% lower than April last year.

Today’s figures show that the largest annual volume growth was in motor trades, which jumped by 18.1%, while sales of books, newspapers and stationery were up 5.8% and fuel sales rose by 5.5%.

Meanwhile sales of food, beverages and tobacco in specialised stores slowed by 7.8%, while furniture and lighting were down 6.4% and sales of hardware, paints and glass fell by 2.9% on an annual basis.

The CSO said the largest monthly volume increases were recorded in bars, which rose by 14%, while car sales increased by 10.3% and clothing, footwear and textiles sales were up 9.5%.

The highest monthly volume decreases were in Other Retail Sales – which includes the likes of carpets, music and video recordings, games and toys, flowers, plants, seeds, fertilisers, pet food and jewellery – and which sank 21.1%.

Furniture & Lighting sales were down 4.7% and Department Stores sales slowed by 2.7%.

Today’s CSO figures also show that the value of retail sales grew by 6.2% in the month and by 13.9% on the same time last year.

Meanwhile, the proportion of retail sales transacted online – from Irish registered companies – fell to 5% in April compared with 5.8% in March 2023.

The figure had stood at 4.9% in April 2022 and at 10.1% in April 2021.

Article Source – Car sales push retail sales sharply higher again – RTE.ie

Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000

This will close in 0 seconds