Sweden’s retail sales growth held steady in November, defying economists’ expectations for an ease, figures from Statistics Sweden showed Tuesday.

Retail sales rose a working-day-adjusted 5.2 percent year-over-year in November, the same rate of increase as in the previous month, which was revised up from a 5.2 percent gain reported earlier.

Economists had expected the growth to slow to 4.0 percent.

Sales of durable goods climbed 7.5 percent annually in November and that for consumables went up by 2.0 percent.

On a monthly basis, retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent in November, exceeding economists’ forecast for a 0.3 percent spike.

However, it was slower than the 0.5 percent increase in October. It was the third successive monthly rise.

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