Cyprus retail sector shows further signs of recovery in September

Retail trade in Cyprus continued its recovery in September, according to provisional figures from the Statistical Service, as the volume index rose by 2.5% compared with September 2009.
Compared with the previous month, the index rose by 0.9%.
One positive sign is that big ticket items are on the rise again.
Sales of electrical goods and furniture jumped compared with the year earlier by 9.2% in September, having already risen by 7.4% in August.
Sales of computer equipment and books also had a strong start to the academic year, rising by 10.1% from 9.8% in August.
For the period January-September the volume index rose by a provisional 0.1%, owing to the contraction in sales earlier in the year.
Revised data for August show that in January-August 2010 the volume index recorded a decrease of 0.2% compared to the corresponding period of 2009.
Meanwhile, the value index is provisionally estimated to have risen by 2.7% over the year earlier in January-September 2010.
In September alone, the value index rose by 8.2% compared with September 2009.

Fiona Mullen
Sapienta Economics Ltd