Polish retail sales likely to dip in February

Societe Generale notes its expectations as follows:

• We expect retail sales growth to be down to 0.3% in February from 0.1% in January.
• On a monthly basis, we expect a drop of 1.0%. Retail sales were mainly driven by pharmaceuticals and other sales in non-specialised stores. It is likely that fuel sales declined by around 16% yoy - note that retail sales are reported in nominal terms and low prices impact the figure.
  
  
• Furthermore, recent SAMAR data on car registrations were negative - there was a decrease of 10.1% yoy in February. We still observe a lack of inflationary pressures and growing real disposable income which should support consumer spending.