Retail sales in Lithuania rose 9.3% year-on-year in January 2026, accelerating from a 2.4% increase in December and reaching their highest growth rate since February 2022. The upturn was driven by higher sales of food, alcoholic beverages, and tobacco (2.8% vs 1.9% in the previous month), non-food products (10.2% vs 7.2%), and pharmaceutical and medical goods as well as cosmetics (10.6% vs 7.1%).
Sales of automotive fuel also rebounded sharply, surging 19.3% after a 7.7% decline in the prior month. By contrast, growth slowed slightly in specialized stores selling audio and video equipment, hardware, furniture, and lighting (1.4% vs 1.6%). Sales continued to contract in specialized outlets for information and communication equipment, cultural and recreational goods, watches and jewellery, and other new goods, with the decline deepening to 1.7% from 1.4% previously.
On a monthly basis, retail sales increased 0.5% in January, following a 0.4% rise in December.
