Retail sales in Türkiye surged by 19.4% year-over-year in March, slowing from an upwardly revised 25.2% growth in the previous month, which was the biggest gain in seven months, the official data showed Monday.

On the other hand, the sales remained flat on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) revealed.

The volume of retail trade showed 0% month-over-month growth in March, following a 3.6% rise in February, the data showed.

Retail sales volume for non-food – except automotive fuel – rose by 0.3% and for food, drinks and tobacco by 0.2% from a month earlier, respectively.

Automotive fuel sales, on the other hand, decreased 1.8% in the same period.

Among non-food items, electronic goods and furniture saw the largest decline with 1.8%, while medical goods and cosmetic sales posted the largest increase with 1.7% in the month.

On an annual basis, non-food sales, excluding automotive fuel, jumped 27.8% year-over-year in March.

Sales of food, drinks and tobacco increased 12.4% compared to last year, while automotive fuel sales fell 2.4%, the TurkStat data showed.

Separate data by the country's statistical authority showed that the turnover index, measuring combined turnover of the industry, construction, trade and services sectors, rose by 84% annually in March.

TurkStat noted that the index rose by 130% for the construction sector, 95.3% for services, 85% for trade and 70.8% for industry.


On a monthly basis, the index rose by 4.7% in March.

According to the details of the total turnover index, industry increased by 3.4%, construction increased by 11.4%, trade increased by 4.7%, and services increased by 4.1% on a monthly basis in March 2024, TurkStat said.