(Reuters) -Italian retail sales rose in January from the month before in value terms as well as in inflation-adjusted volume terms, data showed on Wednesday, with increases recorded for both food and non-food products
Sales were up 1.7% in value following a 0.2% decline in December, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported, with food items gaining 2.2% and other goods up 1.4%.
Compared with a year earlier, overall sales were up 6.2% in value terms, boosted by strong inflation, but were down 2.4% in volume.
This continued the trend seen in 2022, when over the whole year sales rose 4.6% in value terms from the previous year thanks to rising prices, but were down 0.8% in volume.
Food products shed 4.2% in volume last year, outweighing a 1.9% increase for non-food items.
Annual consumer price inflation stood at 10.7% in January, based on Italy’s EU-harmonised index (HICP).
Italy’s National Consumers’ Union, a pressure group, dismissed January’s retail sales increases in value terms as “a mirage caused by runaway inflation” which is having “a devastating effect on purchases.”
Codacons, another consumers’ rights body, said the data showed how rising prices are causing “a significant reduction in purchases but an increase in the amount spent.”
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi, Chiara Bontacchio, Chiara Scarciglia; editing by Gavin Jones)
