Bar sales volumes fall

Retail sales in bars fell 1.5% in volume in the year to the end of August with a 0.9% fall in sales value according to the latest seasonally-adjusted provisional CSO Retail Sales figures for August.

But August’s bar sales volumes were down 2.7% compared to the July 2016 figure while values were down 2.0%.

However final seasonally-adjusted figures for July show that bar sales volumes were up 2.7% compared to July 2015 while values rose 3.5%. Bar sales volumes level-pegged in July compared to June while they were down in value by 0.7%.

Over the three-month period June to August this year, the CSO’s seasonally-adjusted provisional estimates of Bar sales volumes were higher by 3.6% when compared to the same period in 2015 and by 0.7% when compared with the preceding March-May 2016 period.

Sales values were 4.3% up on the same June to August quarter in 2015 while values were up 1.4% on the preceding March to May quarter in 2016.