DUBLIN: Irish retail sales volumes rose 11.9 percent in April compared with the same month a year ago, the fastest annual rise since the financial crisis began after climbing 0.5 percent from March, data showed on Thursday.

Excluding car sales, which rose sharply in the first quarter of the year following a sharp recovery last year, volumes were up 7.8 percent on the year and up 3.1 percent month-on-month, provisional figures from the Central Statistics Office showed.

That was also the largest monthly rise excluding car sales since retail sales began to slowly recover in 2012, driven by an 11.6 percent rise in department store sales and an over 4 percent rise in food, beverages, tobacco and other retail sales.

Copyright Reuters, 2015