Official figures show a big increase in the volume of retail sales in May as non-essential retail reopened after COVID-19 restrictions.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said that sales jumped by 44% compared with May last year, and were also 6.8% higher than in May 2019.

The figures show that the reopening of retail in May had an impact on online sales, with the proportion of retail sales carried out online falling to 6%, down from 10% in April and 13% in May 2020.

Only 11% of clothing-and-footwear sales were online in May, compared with just over 58% in April.

Caution urged

The CSO cautioned against reading too much into the huge annual increase, pointing out that much of the rise was due to the comparison with a low base in May 2020, when sales collapsed during the initial COVID-19 lockdown.

The CSO told the Gazette it was too early to say if this trend would continue in subsequent months, adding that the May figures may have boosted by a once-off release of pent-up demand as physical shops reopened.

Annual retail sales increases had been running at 4-5% in the months before the pandemic, and the figures can be volatile from month to month.

Bar sales still lag

Compared with April this year, the volume of sales rose by 1.8%. The biggest monthly increases were in department stores and the clothing-and-footwear category, with both seeing sales almost treble from April.

Some sectors were still well below their 2019 levels, however, with bar sales down 92% compared with May 2019, as indoor drinking remained off-limits.

Department store sales were also 17% below levels seen in May 2019.