{"id":572335,"date":"2026-07-28T16:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/572335\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T16:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:22:15","slug":"retail-sales-show-no-signs-of-strong-improvement-as-fuel-continues-to-pinch-consumers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/572335\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail sales show no signs of strong improvement as fuel continues to pinch consumers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Retail sales in Ireland rose marginally last month, with fuel prices continuing to present the most pressing issue for consumers since the war in the Middle East interrupted the global oil in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Data released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday show the volume of retail sales across the country increased by 0.4 per cent from May to June. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">This amounts to a 0.6 per cent increase from the volume recorded in June last year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The month-on-month figures build on similar results from earlier in the summer, which revealed a 0.2 per cent rise in retail sale from April to May when motor trades are excluded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The value of fuel sales decreased by 1.1 per cent last month, however its volume decreased by only 0.4 per cent, reflecting the spike in prices and its impact on consumer spending. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">That\u2019s is a 6 per cent jump from June 2025 and a 3.6 per cent drop from the same time period, highlighting how consequential the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in February has been on fuel prices. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Tommy Allen, from the CSO\u2019s enterprise division, said \u201cthe continued divergence of value and volume [of fuel sales] reflects the inflation currently being experienced in the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">More broadly, \u201csectors showing the largest monthly volume increases were electrical goods (+1.8 per cent), clothing, footwear and textiles (+1.5 per cent), bars (+1.2 per cent), and books, newspapers and stationery (+1.2 per cent),\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Allen noted the largest monthly volume decreased were recorded in furniture and lighting, with a -1.8 per cent drop, and pharmaceuticals, medical and cosmetic articles, down -1.4 per cent. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Eugene Kieran, an independent investment consultant, said \u201cbig ticket items, like furniture, continue to lag behind (down 7 per cent on the year) which may be a sign of some consumer caution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cConsumer spending in Ireland is expected to rise by close to 2 per cent next year, but as uncertainty around global economic policy and global political risk remains off the charts, any forecast should come with a huge health warning,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retail sales in Ireland rose marginally last month, with fuel prices continuing to present the most pressing issue&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,14787,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-572335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-central-statistics-office","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}