Irish retail recovery steps up as sales rise 9.3 percent year on year

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish retail sales rose 9.3 percent year-on-year in November as an economic recovery gathered pace, with a large jump in electrical goods and department store sales pushing monthly sales volumes 2.2 percent higher.

The growing popularity of "Black Friday" in Ireland helped a 13.6 percent monthly and 22.2 percent yearly rise in electrical goods sales. Department store sales were up by around half that amount and both also recorded large rises in the value of sales.

Excluding car sales, which midway through last year were already ahead of the whole of 2014, volumes were up 2.8 percent month-on-month and 8.9 percent year-on-year, the provisional figures from the Central Statistics Office showed on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Catherine Evans)