Ukraine’s retail sales increased 5.4% year-on-year in real terms in January-August, slowing from 6% growth in January-July, Ukraine’s state statistics service Ukrstat reported on September 20.
In August alone, real retail sales picked up 5.7% month-on-month and 7.5% y/y (vs. a 3.7% m/m and 6.6% y/y rise in July).
Regionally, the highest retail growth occurred in January-August in Ukraine-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk (27.9% y/y and 13.3% y/y respectively) and Poltava (10.8%) regions. It was slowest in the Chernivtsi (0.8%), Kharkiv (0.9%) and Khmelnytskiy (1.0%) regions.
Evgeniya Akhtyrko at Kyiv-based brokerage Concorde Capital believes that retail trade to accelerate through the year end, supporting economic growth. She expects real retail sales to grow 7-8% y/y in 2018.