Dutch retail sales shows biggest jump in seven years

Retail trade in June this year were 4.7 percent higher than in the same month last year - the biggest sales growth since July 2008. Online sales and non-food related sales showed the biggest increase. This is according to figures released by Statistics Netherlands on Thursday. The volume of sales was 5.1 percent higher in June than a year earlier, while retail prices were 0.4 percent lower. Non-food stores showed a turnover increase of 6 percent in June compared to the same month last year. The turnover increase is entirely attributable to more sales, as prices were slightly lower than in June last yer. Hom furnishing stores showed the largest increase with 12.7 percent. Online shopping turnover increased by 28.1 percent in June compared to the same month last year. This is considerably more than the 12.2 percent increase in May. The online turnover of stores that also have physical stores grew by 34.6 percent. The turnover for online-only stores increased by 23.2 percent. Food and beverages stores booked 3.1 percent more turnover than in June last year. In July the turnover of Supermarkets also showed a slight increase, according to figures from market researcher GfK, the Telegraaf reports. The big supermarkets booked a turnover of nearly 3.2 billion euros, an increase of 0.5 percent compared to July last year.