Türkiye’s retail sales down in February

F.P. Report

ANKARA: Türkiye’s retail sales volume, a marker of growing consumer spending, fell 6.5% month-on-month in February after powerful twin earthquakes hit numerous provinces and affected 13 million people in the country, according to official data released on Wednesday.

Automotive fuel sales posted the largest decline of 8.8%, while non-food (except automotive fuel) dove 8.7% from a month ago in February.

Food, drinks, and tobacco sales inched down 0.3% during the same period.

Electronic goods and furniture sales slipped the most among non-food items, down 11.1% on a monthly basis this February.

As force majeure was declared and VAT declarations – on which retail sales indices calculation is based – were postponed in quake-hit provinces, TurkStat said that alternative data sources such as e-invoice and e-archive invoice data and statistical methods were used to fill in missing observations in the February calculations.

The share of these estimated observations in the total is 3.76%, TurkStat added.
More than 50,000 people were killed on Feb. 6 when magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes struck southern and southeastern Turkish provinces. (APP)