Retail sales down 3.5 percent in Q1

April 18, BPN. Belarus’ retail trade totaled 16.6 billion rubels (about $5.6 billion) in the first three months of 2023, a 3.5 percent decrease year on year, the National Statistics Committee (Belstat) said.

It dropped 2.9 percent in January accelerating to 3.5 percent in January-February.

Wholesale trade decline slowed down to 5.6 percent in the first quarter after falling by 13.3 percent in January-February.

The restaurant industry’s sales rose by 5.7 percent in January, and 9.8 percent in January-March.

In 2022, retail sales totaled 67.5 billion rubels ($25.8 billion) falling by 3.7 percent from the level of 2021 in comparable prices, according to Belstat.