Retail sales have increased by 8.9% in the last year according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). In the last month alone there has been an increase of 1.7%.

The increase has been largely fuelled by car sales, which are up 6.5%, furniture and lighting which has registered a monthly increase of 4.4% and department store sales - up 2%.

However if the motor sales are excluded, there was a fall of 1.1% in the volume of retail sales in March when compared with February 2014.

But there was an increase of 2.2% in the annual figure.

This CSO graph shows motor sales drove the numbers up

The sectors with the largest monthly decreases were hardware, paints and glass down 3.5%, non-specialised stores fell 1.1% and pharmaceuticals and cosmetics dropped 1%.

There was an increase of 1.4% in the value of retail sales in March when compared with February, and there was an annual increase of 6.4% when compared with March of 2013.

But if motor sales are excluded, there was a monthly decrease of 1.5% and an annual decrease of 0.1%.

But Newstalk's Business Editor Ian Guider says overall, these numbers are a positive sign.