BRATISLAVA, June 5, (WEBNOVINY) — After posting a moderate annualized growth for three months in a row, Slovakia’s retail sales reported a drop in April. According to data of the Statistics Office, retail sales in the fourth month of this year dwindled 1.9 percent y/y to EUR 1.418 billion. In March, they grew by the minimum 0.1 percent, a month ago by 2 percent and in January by 1.5 percent, which was the first ever annual growth in retail sales after 18 months. For the first four months of this year, retail sales grew year-on-year by 0.5 percent to EUR 5.581 billion. Compared with March, they dropped 1.3 percent over April.
The development of retail sales in annualized terms was influenced by lower sales in most of activities. The most considerable drop was recorded in retail trade of information and communication technologies, by 5.9 percent and in retail trade with other household equipment in specialized stores by 4.9 percent. Sales increased only in retail trade with motor fuels in specialized outlets by 4 percent.
Retail sales have now seen three years of decline. The sector has felt the impact of the economic crisis as well as shopping tourism, resulting in 2009 in a year-on-year decline in retail sales by over 10 percent. Also in the next two years retail sales fell, last year by 2.8 percent.
SITA
