The retail sector in the Netherlands experienced its slowest growth in over one and a half years in January, largely due to a drop in demand for food products. This information comes from data made public by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
In January, the increase in retail turnover, accounting for shopping days, was 1.8 percent year-on-year. This marked a slowdown from the 3.7 percent growth seen in December. However, it should be noted that sales have been consistently on the rise since March of the previous year.
This growth rate is the most sluggish since June 2022, during which sales experienced a 1.5 percent increase.
In particular, sales of food products fell by 0.4 percent year-on-year in January, which was a sharp contrast to the 4.7 percent surge just a month earlier. On the other hand, non-food sales maintained a steady annual growth rate of 3.1 percent.
Online retail sales, the data showed, were 3.7 percent above their level in the previous year.
When not adjusted for shopping days, the retail turnover saw a 2.4 percent annual increase in January.
