The FINANCIAL — Czech retail sales rose more slowly than expected in March but remained solid, data released on May 6 showed, underscoring that local consumers are continuing to drive the country’s economic rebound.
Retail sales in the month rose 5.9% annually compared with the year-on-year 6.3% growth posted in February, the Czech Statistics Office, or CSU, said. The CSU had previously reported January retail sales growth of 5.5% on year, according to Nasdaq.
Analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal on average expected the March figure to come in at 7.1%.
The headline retail sales figure includes food, consumer goods and automotive fuels but not sales of cars and automobile repairs.
Growth in sales of non-food goods slowed to 6.4% in March from 7.9% a month earlier, while food goods’ growth accelerated to 4.5% from 3.2% in February. Sales of car fuels slowed to 8.2% in March from 10.3% in February.
Retail sales in the automotive sector, excluding fuels, gained 8.8% annually compared with the revised 7.2% growth in the sector in February. The CSU had previously reported the February automotive sector sales at 8.8%.
The Czech economy returned to growth in 2014 after contracting for two years through end-2013. The country’s gross domestic product is expected to expand at or above 2.5% through 2016, accelerating from its last year’s growth of 2%.
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