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4.4.3 Retail sector dynamics
Ukraine retail sales advanced 3.2% year on year in January-April, slowing significantly from 10.6% y/y growth in 1Q20, Ukraine’s State Statistics Service reported on May 21. In April, retail sales plummeted 14.9% y/y (vs. 6.1% y/y growth in March) and 23.0% month on month in real terms.
Regionally, the highest retail growth in 4M20 occurred in the Kyiv (10.5% y/y), Zaporizhzhia (9.8% y/y) and Dnipropetrovsk (8.6% y/y) regions. The major outsiders were Zakarpattia (-11.5% y/y), Chernivtsi (-9.9% y/y) and Ukraine-controlled Luhansk (-5.2% y/y) regions.
"A retail downfall in April was expected, as the previous month fully absorbed all the negatives related to quarantine restrictions in Ukraine, which included the lockdown of most non-food retail stores," Evgeniya Akhtyrko, an analyst at the Concorde Capital brokerage in Kyiv, wrote in a research note. "The restrictions on public transportation also impacted consumer activity." "April’s retail plunge was significant, but not devastating," she went on to say. "It was mostly caused by store doors being shut rather than a decline in consumers’ disposable income." Like everywhere, the quarantine measures caused increased demand for food and some household items, she concluded.
30 UKRAINE Country Report June 2020 www.intellinews.com
