RIGA — While economists continue to debate whether Latvia’s catastrophic economic downturn has turned a corner or not, January’s retail numbers give a glimmer of hope to a bleak domestic scene.

Since November 2008 seasonally-adjusted retail turnover has decreased steadily month-on-month until last month, when it inched up 4 percent. Year-on-year January 2010 was down over 15 percent from 2009, but it’s better that the disastrous Christmas numbers — December 2009 retail sales were 30 percent less than the previous year’s.

With unemployment above 20 percent, the highest in the European Union, economists point to post-Christmas sales rather than a turnaround in domestic demand as the belying the better retail figures.

“Prices are being undermined, however reluctantly … it shows that from the consumer will respond, if the offer seems attractive and is consistent with their purchasing power,” Dainis Gašpuitis, an analyst at SEB told the Diena Bizness newspaper.