Retail sales continued to climb for the 28th consecutive month, rising 5.1% year-on-year, in September which was well above the EU average, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) confirmed the preliminary figures. For the first nine-months, sales increased 5.9%, driven by low fuel prices and higher spending power of households. The outlook of the sector is bullish, analysts forecast strong Christmas sales this year.
Food sales rose 3%, while non-food sales were up by 6.9% and fuel sales increased by 6.1%, helped by the 105 drop in prices.Retail sales data confirm that household spending has improved as people have turned more optimistic in terms of income prospects, the National Economy Ministry said in a statement.
Another sector, which was doing especially well were online sales, up more than 30% annually in Septemb r, as Hungarians are finding it ever more secure to buy from the web.
Compared to the data coming from the EU and the Eurozone, Hungary is doing remarkably well, Ministry state secretary Márk Áron Lenner said, as September sales figure rose 3.7% on average for the 28 members and 2.9% for the countries using the common currency.
To scale back the black economy, Hungary introduced online cash registers in September 2014, which allows the online monitoring of sales by the tax office. The strong retail figures prove that output growth stemmed from real growth and rising consumption, rather than the effects of the cash registers, Lenner noted.
