November sales figures imply strong Christmas – Ibec

"It is crucial that these measures work and we are in a place to reopen retail in advance of Christmas," Retail Ireland has said

Retail Ireland, Ibec's group representing the retail sector, believes its hopes of a strong Christmas sales period will be confirmed

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While the industry waits with bated breath to see how the all-important christmas shopping season fared for retailers, Retail Ireland has pointed to CSO sales figures for November 2015, which indicate a strong Christmas period in their own way.

The total value of retail sales during that month (excluding car sales and bar sales) rose by 4.8% in comparison to November 2014, with the volume of sales up by 9.2% in the same period.

“The strong growth in retail sales in November is encouraging,” said Thomas Burke, director of  Retail Ireland. “It appears that fears of a slump ahead of Christmas and New Year periods were unfounded; month-on-month growth was close to 1.6% in November.

“All core retail categories posted growth in the year to end of November,” he added.

Ibec’s report added that certain retail categories in fact outperformed the market. Electrical goods, furniture and lighting posted strong performances in November, while areas such as clothing, food and books saw more modest growth. Fuel prices remain challenged by global commodity prices, the report said.

Ahead of the final results of the Christmas retail period, due to be published later this month, Burke added that Ibec is confident of a 3.5% increase on the same period in 2014, as it predicted late last year.

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