Retail sales volumes fell 1.6% on a monthly basis in July, dropping for the third month in a row, and were 8.1% lower than the same time a year ago, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
Excluding car sales, which were 4.9% lower on the month and 16.2% year-on-year, retail sales fell by 3.5% compared with July last year.
The CSO noted that retal sales volumes were at the same level as February 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic began.
But despite inflation reaching almost 10% last month, the value of retail sales were 0.1% lower than in June and 0.4% lower on the year.
Today's CSO figures show that four sectors showed an annual increase in the volume of sales compared with July 2021.
Bars rose by 56.8% compared with July last year but despite this large recovery over the previous year, they remain 8.4% lower than their pre-Covid-19 level in February 2020.
Clothing and footwear sales were up 4.3% in July, while Department Stores sales rose by 4.2% and furniture and lighting sales were up 1.1% on an annual basis.
The CSO said the sectors which showed the largest annual reductions in volume were Other Retail Sales, which fell by 21.5%.
This sector includes such items as carpets, music and video recordings, games and toys, flowers, plants, seeds, fertilisers, pet food as well as jewellery.
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Motor trades slowed by 16.2% while food, beverages and tobacco in specialised stores were down -10.9% and fuel sales decreased by 7.5% on an annual basis, the CSO added.
Meanwhile, the largest monthly decreases were seen in the sales of books, newspapers and stationery, which fell by 27.2%. Sales of pharmaceuticals, medical and cosmetic articles declined by 6.8%. Other Retail Sales slowed by 5.5%, while car sales fell by 4.9% and Department Stores' sales were down 3.9%.
Bars sales were up 23% to record the largest monthly volume increase between June and July of this year.
Today's figures also show that the proportion of Retail Sales transacted online - from Irish registered companies - stood at 4.4% in July. This compared with 5% in June 2022, 4.8% in July 2021, and 4.6% in July 2020.
