Cyprus retail trade accelerates towards end-2010

Cyprus retail trade growth accelerated in the last two months of the year, according to revised data for November and provisional data for December.
According to the provisional figures, the turnover volume index of retail trade for December 2010 increased by a huge 37.0% over the previous month, and by 3.9% compared with December 2010.
This followed an already healthy increase of 4.2% over the year earlier in November, according to revised figures.
As the earlier part of the year was sluggish, retail sales for the whole of 2010 are provisionally estimated to have increased by only 0.4%, compared with a drop of 3.7% in 2009.
Data on values followed a similar pattern: there was an increase of 4.4% in November and a provisional increase of 3.3% in December, brining the turnover value for the year to an estimated 1%.