UPDATE 1-Danish March retail sales drop due to Easter date

Mon May 2, 2011 9:42am BST

* Retail sales index falls 7.8 pct yr/yr, 0.2 pct mth/mth

* Easter affect reflected in big yr/yr drop

* February figures revised

COPENHAGEN, May 2 (Reuters) - Denmark's retail sales index fell 7.8 percent in March from a year earlier and slipped 0.2 percent from February, the statistics office said on Monday.

The big year-on-year drop can largely be attributed to Easter taking place last year at the end of March, which boosted retail sales in that month, and this year in April, Statistics Denmark said.

"Compared with 2009, when Easter was, like this year, only relevant to sales in April, sales in March 2011 were roughly at the same level as two years ago," it said.

Lower sales of clothing and other consumer goods, including medicine, electronics and building supplies, contributed to pulling down the index, Statistics Denmark said.

The February index was revised to a 0.4 percent year-on-year fall and a 1.0 percent month-on-month decrease from declines of 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent respectively reported a month ago.

"Overall, there is no doubt that consumers' willingness to spend has been a clear disappointment throughout the recovery we have nonetheless seen in the Danish economy," Handelsbanken Capital Markets economist Jes Asmussen said in a note to clients.

"And that picture has not changed after today's report of retail sales for March," Asmussen said.

For further details in Danish, Reuters 3000 Xtra users can click on www.dst.dk

(Editing by Stephen Nisbet)

((Copenhagen newsroom, tel: +45 3396 9649, e-mail: copenhagen.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com)) Keywords: DENMARK RETAIL/

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