Retail sales increase confirm upturn

Retail sales rose in September, suggesting that the pick-up in consumer spending which the Government is relying on to drive the second wave of the economic recovery is still on course.

Retail sales rose 0.3% in September from August in volume terms, but fell 0.1% in the month when measured in terms of value when the effects of inflation and discounting are taken into account.

However, the CSO headline figures also show sales in volume and value terms surged 8.6% and 4.9% from September 2014.