New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that retail sales volumes fell 0.7% on a monthly basis in March to stand 3.2% higher than a year ago as a fall in new car sales continued to hit headline growth.
The CSO said that if car sales are excluded, there was an increase of 0.7% in the volume of retail sales on a monthly basis and by 6% on an annual basis.
Today's figures show that the sectors with the largest monthly volume decreases were furniture and lighting, where sales fell by 3.8%. Department stores sales were down 3.3% while and motor trades slowed down by 1.9%.
The sectors with the largest monthly increases were Other Retail Sales, with sales of such diverse items as carpets and rugs, jewellery, flowers and pets up by 11.6%. Sales of food, beverages and tobacco increased by 1.9% and bars sales rose by 1.3%.
Retail sales have grown strongly in the last few years but the sharp fall in the value of sterling against the euro after Britain's vote to leave the European Union has led to a surge in used-car imports.
