February bar sales volumes up 6.9%
Bar sales values were also up 7.8% in this time.
Compared to January 2016, bar sales volumes showed a decrease of 2.8% (one of the largest monthly decreases of any sector) while values were down 2.1%.
The seasonally adjusted figures compare to an overall retail sales volume increase of 7.1% for February when compared to the same month in 2015 (when motor trade figures are excluded) and 0.2% for February over January.
However the unadjusted figures indicate that bar sales volumes fell 4.1% in February compared to the previous month, January, while values fell by just under 4%.
Final seasonally adjusted figures for January indicate that bar sales volumes were up 10.9% with values up 11.3% compared to January 2015.
January bar sales volumes were also up 2.7% on December 2015 while values rose 3.0%.
However the unadjusted figures indicate that sales volumes fell 28.3% in January compared to December with values too down 28.2%.
Over the three-month period December to February, adjusted sales volumes were up 7.2% when compared to the same three-month period last year while values showed growth of 7.8%.
Compared to the preceding three-month September to November period, adjusted sales volumes were up by 0.7% while values were up by 0.9%.
