Ukraine retail trade slowed to 3.5% growth in January

Ukrainian retail
sales increased 3.5% yoy in January slowing from 13.4% yoy surge in December,
Ukraine’s State Statistics Service reported on Feb. 22. Month-to-month, the retail declined
27.9% in real terms.

Regionally, the
highest retail growth in January occurred in the Kyiv (13.9% yoy), Chernihiv
(10.7% yoy) and Zaporizhia (6.9% yoy) regions. The largest declines were
observed in the Lviv (-3.1% yoy), Cherkasy (-2.9% yoy) and Kharkiv (-2.2% yoy)
regions.

Evgeniya Akhtyrko: Apparently, the nationwide
quarantine restrictions on Jan. 8-24, which included the ban to sell non-food
goods, hurt the retail sector greatly. The online sales of some non-food
sellers boomed during this period, but it was not enough to compensate the drop
in offline sales.

We expect retail sales to pick up a lot in February, as consumers will
try to compensate January’s underconsumption. The consumer demand is to stay
strong in 2021, with retail sales growing 10% yoy (vs. 8.4% yoy growth in
2020), we predict.