Retail sales decline by 2pc in February

Car sales, which are highly seasonal, recorded the largest monthly fall, declining by 9pc.

This was followed by a 7.1pc drop in department store spending, as well as a 6.3pc decrease in clothing and footwear purchases.

Food, beverage and tobacco sales in specialised stores also recorded a 5.1pc decline in the month, while furniture and lighting spending was also down by 4.1pc in February.

Spending on books and newspapers dipped by 3.5pc, latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures showed.

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Other retail sales, which can include anything from carpets, music and toys to pet food and jewellery, dipped by 0.8pc last month.

Excluding car sales, the volume of retail sales last month remained flat, the data showed.

However, some categories recorded a rise in spending in February.

Pubs saw a 11.8pc monthly volume increase, while hardware stores also recorded a 10.5pc rise.

On an annual basis, department store spending also plunged by almost 15pc compared with February last year.

Food, beverage and tobacco volume sales in specialised stores declined by 7.9pc in the year to last month.

Meanwhile, electrical goods sales were up 7pc across the year, while spending on clothing grew by 4.4pc.

In value terms, retail sales dipped by 0.7pc in the month, but were up 3pc in the year to February, illustrating that inflation – a measure of the cost of living – is still having an impact.

Earlier this month, the CSO reported that inflation slowed to 3.4pc in the year to February, down from 4.1pc recorded a month earlier.

This was only the fourth time since September 2021 that the annual growth in the CSO’s ­consumer price index has been below 5pc.

It is also the fourth consecutive month where this was the case, according to the analysis.

Online sales from Irish-registered companies amounted to 4.9pc of all sales last month, down from 5.7pc in January.

This has also plummeted from highs recording during the lockdowns.

Around 13pc of retail sales had been carried out online in February 2021 at the height of the pandemic.