Retail trade

After decreasing in December 2018, the month-on-month retail trade index grew by 0.5% in value terms and by 0.6% in volume terms in January 2019.

In the three months to January 2019, value and volume of retail trade slightly rose by 0.1% and 0.2% respectively.

The year-on-year estimates showed an increase at 1.3% in value terms and a growth at 1.5% in the quantity sold.

Estimates for large scale distribution showed the strongest growth year-on-year since March 2018, increasing by 2.8%. Small scale distribution continued its recent decline (-0.8% when compared with the same month a year earlier). In January 2019, online sales rose by 13.3% after a negative 0.3% recorded in December 2018.

Looking at the value of sales by product category, the strongest growth were reported for Shoes, leather and travel items (+2.3%) and Electric household appliances and audio-video equipment (+2.2%). The largest fall concerned Stationary, books, newspapers and magazine (-1.6%) and Pharmaceutical product (-1.2%).