Official figures show that the volume of retail sales rose strongly in February, helped by a surge in sales in the motor sector.
The Central Statistics Office said the volumes of sales in February was up 3% compared with the same month last year, the first annual increase for more than two years.
While these figures are a big improvement from recent months, they have been distorted somewhat by a dramatic swing in car sales.
Car sales suffered a collapse in the early months of last year, but have been boosted this year by the scrappage scheme introduced in the Budget. This led to a surge of more than 30% in motor sales compared with February last year.
The total volume of sales jumped by 14.9% from January, but this was helped by a 34.5% monthly rise in motor sales.
When motor sales were stripped out, retail sales still rose 1.2% compared with January, though they were down 3.1% from February last year. This is still the smallest annual fall since 2008.
A breakdown showed that sales of hardware, paint and glass were up 4.8% from January, while furniture sales rose by almost 15%. Bar sales fell 2.7% from January, however, and are now down almost 11% over the year. Sales in non-specialised stores - which include supermarkets - fell 1.9% from January.
The value of sales, which takes prices into account, grew by 1.3% over the year to February and by 12.9% from January.
