Hotels, restaurants, cafes and snackbars booked a 3.9% rise in turnover in the first quarter of 2015, the central statistics agency CBS said on Tuesday.

Sales in the catering sector have now gone up for seven quarters in a row, although the rise is below the 5.1% booked in the previous quarter.

All areas of the catering sector showed growth in turnover, with restaurants leading the way and snackbars and cafes lagging slightly behind at 1.3% and 0.5% respectively, the CBS said.