STOCKHOLM (dpa-AFX) - Sweden's retail sales grew at the slowest pace in ten months in March, and the trade surplus decreased, figures from Statistics Sweden showed on Tuesday.
Retail sales rose 0.6 percent year-on-year in March, after a 3.7 percent increase in February and January.
The growth was the weakest since May 2019, when sales rose 0.2 percent.
Retail sales in consumables, excluding sales at the state-owned chain of liquor stores, rose by 6.1 percent, while retail sales in durables decreased by 3.8 percent.
On a monthly basis, retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent in March.
The trade surplus decreased to SEK 4.1 billion in March from SEK 5.3 billion in the same month last year. In February, the trade surplus was SEK 12.7 billion.
Exports fell 2.0 percent annually in March and imports decreased 1.0 percent.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the trade surplus increased to SEK 5.7 billion in March, compared with a surplus of SEK 5.3 billion in the previous month.
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