Irish retail sales up 4.9 percent year-on-year in March

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish retail sales posted annual growth of 4.9 percent in March, but were 0.8 percent lower month-on-month, the Central Statistics Office said on Monday.

Excluding car sales which have been volatile in recent years, volumes grew by 8.2 percent from a year earlier - the highest annual rise in over three years - and by 1.2 percent compared to the previous month.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries, editing by Padraic Halpin)