Consumption up, but negative surprise in food retail

Consumption in Slovakia continues to grow, but the food retail sector produced a negative surprise in January, said UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia analyst Ľubomír Koršňák in a commentary on retail sales in the first month of this year. According to him, retail sales posted their lowest year-on-year growth since last February. "The reason behind this was mainly due to a surprisingly significant decline in sales in the otherwise stable food sector. Household consumption is helped, in particular, by a strong labour market, which is showing signs of overheating, especially in the western part of Slovakia, but also by low interest rates and relatively high consumer confidence. This has stabilised in recent months near ten-year highs, and," he said.