Euro zone retail sales were slightly weaker than expected in October, data showed on Monday, falling more than expected in a sign of weakening consumer demand that could herald the start of expected technical recession.
The European Union’s statistics office said retail sales in the 19 countries that use the euro fell 1.8% month-on-month, with a 2.7% year-on-year decline. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a drop of 1.7% for the month and 2.6% for the year.
Retail sales are a proxy for consumer demand and their drop at the start of the last quarter of the year is in line with the European Commission’s expectations of an economic contraction in the fourth quarter of 2022, followed by another drop in production in the first three months of 2023 — a technical recession.
Sales of non-food products were the ones that dropped the most in monthly terms, 2.1%, while sales of food, beverages and tobacco were the ones that dropped the most year-on-year, at 3.9%.
Source: CNN Brasil
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