Sales of non-food stores declined 1.4% annually in December and sales in specialized stores fell 2.8%. Sales in non-specialized stores, and those of food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased by 4.8% and 4.6%, respectively. On a month-on-month basis, retail sales fell 6.2% in December.
For the January to December period, retail sales rose by a working-day adjusted 2.5% from the same period of the previous year. Separate data from the Vilnius-based office showed that the preliminary estimate of EU measure of harmonized index of consumer prices, or HICP rose 0.2% yearly in January, reversing a 0.1% fall in December.
On a monthly basis, HICP increased 0.4% in January, after remaining unchanged in the previous month.