Retail sales report modest growth in Q1 2018

Retail sales in the Albanian economy grew modestly in the first quarter of this year as well.

According to the Institute of Statistics, retail sales index rose 1.5% on an annual basis.

This growth is somewhat higher compared to the last quarter of the previous year, but it confirms a slowdown in the growth of retail sales in the Albanian economy over the past year.

Unlike the last quarter of 2017, the main impact came from the growth in sales of non-food products, with an annual growth of 2.8%.

While the declining move of fuel prices held a significant weight last year, in the first quarter of this year, poor sales growth is no longer justified by hydrocarbon trade and this segment did not have a great impact in the overall index.

INSTAT reports that if we exclude the trade of hydrocarbons, the growth of retail sales was slightly higher, by 1.7%.

In the previous three quarters, the growth in retail trade, excluding hydrocarbons, was above 3%.

The weakening of retail sales growth in recent quarters comes somewhat unexpected, given that economic projections anticipate a rise in consumption as the main engine of economic growth.

Retail sales are among the main indirect indicators of the private consumption performance in the economy.

SCAN

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