Spain Retail Sales Expand Most In 20 Months

(RTTNews) - Spain's retail sales rose for the second straight month in January, and at the fastest pace in twenty months, underpinned by a sharp increase in non-food product turnover, data from the statistical office INE showed on Friday.

Retail sales posted an annual growth of 5.5 percent in January, after a 4.8 percent rebound in the previous month.

Further, this was the strongest rate of growth since May 2021, when sales had surged 19.5 percent.

Non-food product sales alone surged 15.0 percent yearly in January, while those of food products dropped 1.7 percent.

On an unadjusted basis, the retail sales growth accelerated notably to 7.1 percent from 3.7 percent.

Month-on-month, retail sales increased 0.4 percent in January versus a 0.5 percent gain in December. Sales advanced for the sixth successive month.

Both food and non-food product sales rose from a month ago. Food sales were up 0.5 percent and non-food products posted a bigger increase of 5.4 percent.