Unadjusted growth was 1.9% in February and 2.5% in January-February, while seasonally adjusted figures show growth of 2.8% for the first two months of 2005. Meanwhile, retail sales were stagnant in February compared to the previous month according to seasonally and working day adjusted figures, following monthly growth of 0.3% in January.
Growth was driven by non-food retail sales, up 3.5% adjusted in February and 5.0% in the first two months, while sales of food, beverages and tobacco were only up 0.2% in February and declined a notch for the year to date.
