Irish January retail sales rise, fashion is most buoyant sector

Ireland’s retail sales continue to rise but the figures from its Central Statistics Office for January show that explosive growth remains elusive.

In January 2024, the volume of retail sales increased by 0.5% month on month and by 2.7% year on year. But if car sales are taken out of the equation, the volume actually fell compared to December and rose by only 0.4% when compared to January 2023.

That said, there was some good news given that the highest mont-on-month volume increase was recorded in Clothing, Footwear & Textiles, with the sector up a massive 37.6%. Although the January clearance sales are likely to have had an effect, it’s still a surprising figure given that December should have been a big month for fashion sales.

Year on year, the sector was also among the biggest jumps with a 5.3% rise.

But department stores were among the channels seeing the biggest falls against the previous month with a 3.9% drop.

Those figures all relate to sales volumes, and the statistics office said that the value of retail sales rose 0.9% month on month and was up 5.4% year on year.

Meanwhile the proportion of retail sales transacted online by Irish registered companies was 5.5% in January 2024 compared with 5.4% in December 2023 and 5.4% in January 2023.