Bar volumes down 1.5% in December

Retail sales volumes in bars fell 1.5% last December compared to sales in December 2018 according to the CSO’s latest provisional seasonally-adjusted retail sales figures.

However sales values rose marginally – by 0.1%.

Compared to last November, December’s retail sales volumes in bars were up 0.3% while values were up just 0.1%.

Final figures for November show that sales volumes in bars were down 2.8% on November 2018 while values were down 1.1%. November’s volume sales figures were up 3.6% on October 2019, with values up 1.9%.

The quarter October to December 2019 saw a fall of 2.1% in bar sales volumes compared to the same period in 2018 and a 0.4% fall in values. The 2019 quarter volume figure was up 0.6% on the previous quarter in 2019 – July to September – and up 1.2% in value.

The Bar Sales figures are set against a 5.8% rise in retail volumes generally for December 2019 but ‘Black Friday’ is included in the December reporting period for the Index which covers the five weeks 24^th of November 2019 to 28^th of December 2019. In 2018 ‘Black Friday’ was covered in the November reporting period.