MADRID, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Fashion retailer Inditex posted a 14% fall in sales in the three months from August to October, an improvement on a 31% drop in the previous quarter, as shoppers gingerly returned to stores after the first wave of COVID-19 subsided. However, fresh lockdowns from late October to combat the second wave of the pandemic meant that 21% of stores were closed in November, the company said, with around 8% currently shut. “From the 19th October a phase of closures and restrictions began in various markets until the first week of December,” the company said. Third-quarter net profit reached 866 million euros, in line with a rebound in profit reported in the second quarter, as the company’s tightly-controlled supply chain model and ability to deliver and return goods in-store kept margins stable throughout the pandemic. This was down 26% on the year-ago period. (Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Sonya Dowsett, Editing by Keith Weir)