March 11 (SeeNews) - Croatia's retail sales increased by a real 6.2% on the year in terms of volume in January, exceeding the expectations for 3.8% growth of analysts at Austria-based Erste banking group, the latter said on Wednesday.
"Retail trade started the year on strong footing, with headline figure rising 6.2% y/y in January, thus even accelerating vs December’s growth of 4.5% y/y and beating our expectations (EBCe: 3.8% y/y)," Erste said in an instant comment after Croatia's statistical office published the retail sales data earlier in the day.
On a monthly comparison basis, seasonally- and working-day adjusted retail sales rose 2.7% in January, with the turnover of food products advancing by 2.6%, and the turnover of non-food products (except of automotive fuels and lubricants) increasing by 1.7%, Erste noted.
"Positive labor and wage developments are currently taking a back seat when it comes to outlook expectations as markets are wrestling with negative spillovers of the Coronavirus. The biggest question is to what extent will the Covid-19 outbreak influence consumer confidence, tourism activity and thus overall private consumption," Erste said.
It added that the first-quarter figures will remain relatively unaffected by the virus outbreak, while the biggest risks to the full-year growth are linked with the performance in the second quarter.
However, Erste still expects modest growth of private consumption in Croatia in 2020.