{"id":507532,"date":"2026-05-28T21:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/507532\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T21:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:06:16","slug":"dip-in-retail-activity-in-april-reveals-growing-divide-in-spending-patterns-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/507532\/","title":{"rendered":"Dip in retail activity in April reveals \u2018growing divide in spending patterns\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retail sales fell in April, in part due to declines in clothing and electrical goods sales. <\/p>\n

The volume of retail sales dipped by 0.2 per cent compared with the previous month, according to data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO)<\/a>. Sales volumes were down by 0.5 per cent from April 2025. <\/p>\n

Sales volumes were dragged down by a dip in the amount spent on clothing (-2.9 per cent), department stores (-2 per cent), and electrical goods (-2 per cent) when compared with the previous month.<\/p>\n

These figures reflected broader spending patterns, with annual declines in spending on clothing and department stores over the last 12 months at 7.2 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively.<\/p>\n

Colette Delvey, EY Ireland<\/a> partner and consumer products and retail lead, said the real story in the data was \u201cthe growing divide in spending patterns\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some discretionary categories such as clothing, down 7.2 per cent year-on-year, and furniture, down over 10 per cent, saw declines, essential and health-related areas performed strongly, including pharmaceuticals, which grew 10.5 per cent annually, and food, up 3.9 per cent in the month,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Delvey noted that this suggests \u201chouseholds are actively adjusting rather than pulling back, prioritising everyday and essential purchases and hitting pause on some larger decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Will new pay transparency rules close the gender pay gap for good?<\/p>\n

The value of fuel sales was marginally down, by 0.5 per cent, since March, suggesting a slight ease from the surge of fuel prices by 7.7 per cent recorded against the backdrop of the global energy price shock caused by the US-Israeli attack<\/a> on Iran. <\/p>\n

However, fuel prices were still up by 10.6 per cent from April last year, with the volume of fuel sales only falling by 2.6 per cent over the past year.<\/p>\n

Tommy Allen, a statistician in the enterprise statistics division of the CSO, said \u201cfuel shortages experienced across the country in April 2026, along with reductions in fuel excise duty, likely contributed to the short-term decreases in value and volume, while the annual value increase remains high.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe continued divergence of value and volume reflects the inflation currently being experienced in the sector,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

April did see increased spending on books, newspapers and stationery (4.6 per cent), food, beverages, and tobacco (3.9 per cent) and pharmaceuticals, medical and cosmetic articles (3.6 per cent).<\/p>\n

The value of retail sales for all businesses rose by 1 per cent over the past 12 months. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retail sales fell in April, in part due to declines in clothing and electrical goods sales. The volume…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,1412,179,18,16242,19,17,45036],"class_list":["post-507532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-central-statistics-office","tag-economy","tag-eire","tag-ey","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel-iran-conflict"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116654242996449792","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}