Retailers hit by ‘lacklustre’ Christmas

Online purchases, cross-border shopping, as well as a weakening in consumer confidence were to blame for “lacklustre” Christmas sales, leading economists have said.

CSO figures for December showed that excluding car sales, retail sales fell 2.7% when measured in terms of volume from November, but were up 2% from a year earlier.

In value terms, excluding car sales, retail sales fell 1.6% from November and rose by a meagre 0.2% from the previous Christmas period. The CSO said that including car sales that the volume of retail sales climbed 5.9% in 2016 and by 3.8% in value terms.