New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that retail sales, while still very weak, are continuing to stabilise.
The CSO said that the volume of retail sales in November 2009 fell by 8.2% compared with the same time in 2008. The decline is still a marked improvement from the falls of over 26% seen at the start of 2009 and is the slowest rate of decline since December 2008.
Today's figures show a monthly increase of 1.1% from October.
Motor industry sales rose by 3.5% in November but are still 24.5% lower than the same month in 2008.
Sales in sectors linked to the construction industry continued to see big declines in November, with annual household equipment sales down 10.8%, furniture and lighting dipping 14.8% and hardware and paints dropping 15.7%.
Bar sales were also weaker, falling by 12% on an annual basis, while clothing, footwear and textiles sales slowed by 2.3% and sales in department stores slumped 11%.
Footfall drops 7%
A separate report released today found that footfall in Irish shops fell by more than 7% in the last quarter of 2009.
Figures released by information services company Experian confirmed that, while it was a difficult period for retailers in the republic, footfall in the North improved slightly (by 0.1%) in the final quarter of 2009.
This contrasts with the start of 2009, when footfall was up 7.3% in the North.
Overall footfall in Irish shops fell by 5.7% in 2009, when compared with 2008. In the North, it increased by 3.3% on 2008.
