Loan woman shopping in Vilnius, Lithuania on April 18, 2020. Photo by Michele Ursi / Shutterstock.com

Retail sales, excluding value added tax, decreased a working-day adjusted 5.7% year-on-year in March, after a 7% rise in February.

Sales of textiles, clothing and footwear dropped 52.9% annually in March. Sales in non-specialized stores declined 34.2% and sales of non-food items fell 14.3%. Sales in the food and beverages services industry decreased 44.9%.

On the month, retail sales fell 10.4% in March. For the January to March period, retail sales gained a working-day adjusted 1.8% from the same period of the previous year, LS said on April 28.