Retail sales, excluding VAT (value-added tax), increased a working-day adjusted 12.7% year-on-year in February, after an 18.1% growth in January.

The latest retail sales growth was the lowest since November last year.

Sales of non-food stores grew 31.8% annually in February and those in specialized stores rose 11.7%.

Sales in non-specialized stores and those of food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco decreased by 5.3% and 4.9%, respectively.

On a month-on-month basis, retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in February.