According to the report from Istat, in April 2019, estimates of retail trade in value and volume terms remain unchanged compared with March 2019.

In the three months to April 2019, both value and volume of retail trade stay broadly flat at 0.0% and -0.1% respectively when compared to the previous three months (Nov 2018 – Jan 2019).

Year-on-year growth in the value of sales increased by 4.2%, while the quantity sold rose by 4.6%.

Large scale distribution reported a large spike in retail sales, increasing by 7.5% year on year, while small scale distribution was up 0.6%. Online sales saw a year-on-year rise of 17.2%.

Looking at the value of sales for non-food products, the strongest growth was reported for computers and telecommunications equipment (+4.7%), cosmetic and toilet articles (+3.1%), while the largest falls concerned shoes, leather goods and travel items (-3.3%) and clothing (-1.3%).