Eurozone retail sales in September beat expectations

Eurozone retail sales grew unexpectedly quickly in September, even after a major upward revision to the previous month’s data, reinforcing the idea that private consumption is finally starting to recover, as they showed on Thursday Eurostat data.

Retail sales rose 0.5% for the month on an adjusted basis, above expectations of 0.4%, even after the previous month’s growth rate was increased to 1.1% from 0.2 %.

The month’s reading, along with the major revision, put the annualized increase at 2.9% in September, well above expectations of 1.3% in a Reuters poll of economists.

Household consumption has been weak for over a year, despite a recovery in real income, with families choosing to save rather than spend. This has intrigued monetary authorities and analysts.

Among the bloc’s largest countries, Germany and Spain posted above-average monthly growth rates, while France, which had had a big Olympic boost the previous month, suffered a slight decline in September.

Sales of non-food products grew well above average in the month and the annualized growth rate reached 5.3% in September, following 2.4% in the previous month.

Source: Terra

Rose

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