"The rate of growth of non-food retailers' sales this year exceeds the sector's average. This is the first serious evidence of a recovery in the population's purchasing power and domestic consumption, indicating an essential change in household consumption behavior and assessments of their financial future," Indrė Genytė-Pikčienė, a senior analyst at DnB Nord, said in a comment to the media.
The analyst noted that people's expectations have returned to the pre-crisis level of spring 2008. The changing situation in the labor market is making people more optimistic. The easing inflation this year is not spoiling consumers' appetite either, she says.
Lithuania's retail sales, not including car sales and repairs and food and beverage service providers, rose by 4.9 percent in the first eight months of this year from a year ago to 18.713 billion litas (EUR 5.42b), not including VAT, the country's statistics office said on Friday.
Retail sales were up by 0.7 percent in August from July to 2.609 billion litas.
