Retail spending overall was flat in December, compared with November, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.
When motor sales are stripped out, the volume of retail sales fell by 1.8% over the month while the volume of sales over the year was up by just 0.1%.
Spending levels generally over the year in 2022 were also quite flat with retail sales for all businesses up in the year in volume terms by 0.5%.
But because of the impact of inflation, the value of those sales was up 8.3% over the year and up 0.5% in December compared to the previous month.
In volume terms, motor sales were up 4% in December and supermarket sales were up 1.4%. The volume of sales of clothing, footwear and textiles were down 16.8% while electrical goods were down 7.7%.
Over the year, sales in bars were up 54.7% but this comparison takes in periods when Covid-19 restrictions were in place with bars closing by 8pm in the run up to Christmas 2021.
Today's figures show that sales of clothing over the year were up 7.7% while sales of electrical goods were up 7.2% in volume terms.
The volume of sales of hardware and paints was down just over 10% while furniture and lighting were down 12.7%.
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