Euro zone retail sales fell in August, data showed on Thursday, pointing to a weakness in consumer demand and underlining expectations of an approaching recession.
The European Union's statistics office Eurostat said retail sales in the 19 countries sharing the euro fell 0.3% month-on-month for a 2.0% year-on-year drop.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 0.4% monthly fall and a 1.7% year-on-year decline.
Consumer Demand
The fall in retail sales, seen as a proxy for consumer demand, underlines economists' expectations that the euro zone is likely to go in to a recession in the coming quarters, hit by the energy price shock created by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The sales decline in August came despite a sharp rise in the volume of sales of car fuels during the holiday season, which rose 3.2% month-on-month and 5.1% year-on-year, but failed to offset falling sales of food and drinks and internet or mail order shopping.
Non-food retail sales overall did rise by 0.2% in August, although that was down 3.0% from a year earlier.
Inflation
In September, Euro zone inflation zoomed past forecasts to hit a fresh record high, reinforcing expectations for another jumbo interest rate hike from the European Central Bank in October.
Elsewhere, German inflation was at its highest in more than a quarter of a century in September, driven by high energy prices, data showed, as analysts warned that the energy crisis has yet to make itself fully felt.
News by Reuters, edited by ESM – your source for the latest retail news. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
