May 29 (SeeNews) - Serbia's retail sales will start recovering in the coming months as the government has relaxed the coronavirus-related restrictions, Austria-based Erste banking group said.
"It is reasonable to expect that retail activity bottomed-out in April and will now slowly start to recover as measures are relaxed," Erste said in an instant comment after Serbia's statistical office published retail sales data earlier in the day.
Serbia's retail sales decreased by a real 18.6% on the year in April, after posting a 4.4% annual rise in the previous month, according to data released by the country's statistical office. Month-on-month, retail sales went down by a real 20.3%, following a 6.9% rise the previous month, the data indicated.
"Long-term outlook depends on the tempo of normalisation of economic activity, developments on the labour market but also consumer confidence which will likely take longer time to recover to pre-crisis levels," Erste said.
Following are details on Serbia's retail trade turnover by main categories (y/y pct change, real):
|
Apr'20 |
Mar'20 |
Retail trade, except for motor vehicles and motorcycles |
-18.6 |
4.4 |
- Food, beverages and tobacco |
-7.4 |
14.9 |
- Non-food products (except for automotive fuel) |
-25.6 |
-1.0 |
- Automotive fuel |
-35.3 |
-9.7 |