The growth rate of retail sales slowed in November 2008. The Statistics Office of the Slovak Republic (ŠÚ) reported that retail sales grew 2.2 percent y-o-y in constant prices in November, compared with 4.6 percent in October.
Retail sales reached €1.441 billion in November. Outside retail outlets reported an increase of 25.3 percent; specialized retail stores grew 17.1 percent; retail sales of cosmetics and pharmaceutical products increased by 9.6 percent. But revenues in non-specialized outlets dropped by 17.6 percent and retail sales of foodstuffs shrank by 2.1 percent. For the entire January- November 2008 period, retail sales were 7.2 percent higher than the same period in 2007, according to newswire SITA wrote.