February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — As Ireland’s Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy gears up to try to control inflation in the December budget, new figures show that people are continuing to spend, spend, spend.
The value of retail sales rose by 16.2 percent in September, compared to figures for the same period last year.
The September index was up 2.1 percent higher on August, according to the Central Statistics Office.
During the year, clothing sales have gone up 18.7 percent, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics 18.4 percent, cars 16.6 percent and electrical goods 16 percent.
During the three months June through August, the most significant increase in sales volume was in the electrical goods sector, which rose by 13.9 percent.
Never miss an issue of The Irish Echo
Subscribe to one of our great value packages.
After the booming sales earlier in the year, which resulted in the first 100,000 registration number plate in Dublin this year, car sales were down 5.6 percent in the three months.
The government had to change legislation to allow the shortening of the hyphen in number plates so the six digits numbers could fit on them.