Danes Deliver ‘Massive’ Jump in Retail Sales After Lockdown Ends

(Bloomberg) -- Consumers in Denmark went on a spending spree last month, after the country ended its lockdown and allowed shops to reopen.

Retail sales soared 9.4% in May from April, after months of stagnation punctuated by declines, Statistics Denmark said on Thursday.

The “massive increase” came mostly from a spike in clothes sales after the government reopened shopping malls, said Louise Hansen, an economist at Danske Bank.

Denmark was among the first European countries to impose a lockdown to stem the virus’s spread. In recent weeks, as hospitalizations and contagion rates have fallen, the government has allowed much of the economy to reopen. Denmark has one of Europe’s lowest Covid-19 mortality rates, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

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