Retail sales rise in February despite cost-of-living squeeze

Retail sales rose in February as Covid-19 restrictions were lifted and consumers spent more in bars, and on hardware and electrical goods.

Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show retail volumes were up 0.9 per cent month on month.

The sectors with the largest monthly increases were bars (13.9 per cent); hardware, paints and glass (7 per cent); and electrical goods (4.8 per cent). Sales volumes, however, in department stores declined by 5.4 per cent.

Despite the acceleration in inflation (now running at 5.6 per cent) and a major cost-of-living squeeze, retail volumes were up 2.2 per cent year on year in February.

The Irish Times Business Person of the Month: Gavin Slark

---

Sports Direct paid €1m dividend as it received €2.87m in wage supports

---

Next says prices to rise by 8% in autumn amid ‘chronic’ staff shortages

---

Irish businesses’ online trade accounts for 5.8% of sales in January, CSO finds

---

Increases

The CSO noted that several sectors showed “very large annual increases” compared with February 2021 when a full lockdown of non-essential retail and services was in force.

The volume of sales in bars rose by 726 per cent compared with February 2021. Despite the large recovery in February 2022, bar sales remained 30.2 per cent lower than their pre-Covid level.

Clothing and footwear saw an annual volume increase of 295 per cent, department stores were up 88.1 per cent while books, newspapers and stationery were up 79.5 per cent.

However, the CSO again cautioned the annual increases in these sectors reflect a recovery from a very low base in February 2021 when the country was in Level 5 lockdown.

The proportion of retail sales transacted online with Irish-registered companies was 4.7 per cent in February 2022 compared with 5.6 per cent in January 2022, 11.8 per cent in February 2021 and 3.5 per cent in February 2020, the CSO said.

Sales

The CSO’s sale figures do not capture online sales with non-resident companies.

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) warned that inflation in the Irish economy could rise to 8.5 per cent or even higher in the coming months, a level not seen since the early 1980s, as the war in Ukraine compounds existing price pressures.

It also said the cost-of-living squeeze will see incomes – in real terms – fall by an average of 2 per cent in 2022, meaning the typical household could see its income decline by about €1,300 once the effects of inflation are accounted for.