Greek retail sales up 1.2 percent in March

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek retail sales by volume rose 1.2 percent in March compared to the same month a year earlier, despite the uncertainty over a reforms deal with the country's EU/IMF lenders, statistics service ELSTAT said on Friday.

Sales volumes had risen for five months in a row through October on a pick up in consumer spending as the economy recovered from a protracted recession. But a turbulent political climate towards the end of last year hit consumer sentiment.

Greece's economy recovered modestly last year after six years of a deep contraction as national output expanded by 0.8 percent, driven by tourism and exports.

Hit by the country's economic slump and record unemployment, retail sales declined by about 40 percent in 2009-2013, hit by austerity policies imposed under the terms of Greece's 240-billion-euro EU/IMF bailout.

(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris, editing by Deepa Babington)