November 20 (SeeNews) - Moldova's retail sales fell by a real 4.7% on the year to 16.2 billion lei ($1.46 billion/987 million euro) in the first ten months of 2009, the country's statistics bureau said on Friday.
In October alone, retail sales fell by 6.5% on the year in real terms to some 1.792 billion lei, the bureau said in a statement.
Privately-held companies with Moldovan capital accounted for 65.9% of all retail sales through September. Their sales decreased by an annual 6.8% in the review period.
Sales of wholly or partially foreign-owned companies increased by an annual 1.2% through October, the statistics office said.
(1 euro=16.4331 Moldovan lei)