December bar sales values up 5.5%

Retail sales in bars showed volume growth of 2.8% in the year to December 2017, with values up 5.5% according to seasonally adjusted provisional volume and value figures from the CSO.

But bar sales volumes flatlined in December when compared to November while values actually decreased slightly, by 0.1%.

Final seasonally adjusted figures for November show bar sales volumes up 2.6% with values up 5.6% over the 12-month period to November 2017. On a monthly basis, both volumes and values were down 0.4%.

Across the three months October to December bar sales volumes rose 2.2% while values rose 4.9% when compared to the same period in 2016. Bar sales values across the quarter were down by 0.7% in volume and up by 0.4% in value when compared to the previous 2017 three-month quarter July to September.