September 22 (SeeNews) - Moldova's retail sales fell by a real 4.9% on the year to 12.57 billion lei ($1.12 billion/755 million euro) in the first eight months of 2009, the country's statistics bureau said on Tuesday.
In August alone, retail sales fell by 5.6% on the year to some 1.83 billion lei, the bureau said in a statement.
Privately-held companies accounted for 65.8% of all retail sales through August. Their sales decreased by an annual 7.2% in the review period.
Sales of wholly or partially foreign-owned companies increased by an annual 2.1% through August, the statistics office said.
(1 euro=16.6464 Moldovan lei)