Eurzone retail sales decreased unexpectedly in September after remaining flat in the previous month, figures from Eurostat showed Thursday.
Retail sales edged down 0.1 percent month-over-month in September, confounding economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent increase. In August, sales showed no variations.
Sales of food, drink and tobacco dropped 0.6 percent annually in September, while sales of non-food products went up by 0.1 percent.
Annually, growth in retail sales accelerated to 2.9 percent in September from 2.2 percent in the prior month, which was revised from 2.3 percent. However, it was lower than the 3.0 percent gain expected by economists.
Sales in EU28 advanced 3.7 percent in September from a year ago, while it dropped 0.1 percent from the preceding month.
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