Latvia Retail Sales Growth At 8-Month High

(RTTNews) - Latvia's retail sales grew for the third straight month in November and at a faster pace in eight months, largely driven by a surge in sales of clothing, footwear, and leather goods, figures from the Central Statistical Bureau showed on Thursday.

Retail sales climbed a calendar-adjusted 10.7 percent year-over-year in November, following a 5.9 percent gain in the previous month.

Further, this was the strongest rate of growth since March, when sales had risen 12.0 percent.

Retail sales of clothing, footwear, and leather goods grew the most by 94.4 percent from last year, and sales of cultural and recreation goods rose by 57.3 percent.

The turnover of retail trade in non-food products, except for retail sales of automotive fuels, grew 23.3 percent yearly in November, while that of food products decreased 3.0 percent.

Data showed that sales of automotive fuel registered an increase of 9.1 percent, while retail sales via mail-order houses or the internet dropped sharply by 14.5 percent.

On a monthly basis, retail sales rebounded by a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent in November versus a 0.6 percent decrease in October.