2021.01.2810:21:00UTC+00Lithuania Retail Sales Drop In December

Lithuania's retail sales declined for the first time in eight months in December, figures from the statistical office showed on Thursday.

Retail sales, excluding VAT, decreased a working-day adjusted 1.0 percent year-on-year in November, after a 6.4 percent rise in November.

Sales of non-food stores declined 1.4 percent annually in December and sales in specialized stores fell 2.8 percent.

Sales in non-specialized stores, and those of food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased by 4.8 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.

On a month-on-month basis, retail sales fell 6.2 percent in December.

For the January to December period, retail sales rose by a working-day adjusted 2.5 percent from the same period of the previous year.

Separate data from the statistical office showed that the preliminary estimate of EU measure of harmonized index of consumer prices, or HICP rose 0.2 percent yearly in January, reversing a 0.1 percent fall in December.

On a monthly basis, HICP increased 0.4 percent in January, after remaining unchanged in the previous month.