South Korea's major department store chains saw their sales move up 2.4 % in the first quarter from a year earlier, South Korean government data showed Sunday, indicating a recovery may be under way in the retail sector. 
According to the data compiled by the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, South Korea's top three department store brands, Lotte, Hyundai and Shinsegae, saw their sales improve in the January-March period from a year earlier, recovering from the 1.2 % on-year drop posted for all of 2015. 
Last year, only three branches managed to post annual sales above 1 trillion won, with two of them being Lotte and the other Shinsegae. 
"As the sales of large branches are recovering, and as department stores are aggressively rolling out renewal projects, it is believed that the number of the so-called 1 trillion-won club branches will increase," an industry watcher said.