German Retail Sales Fall Unexpectedly

(RTTNews) - Germany's retail sales declined unexpectedly in April, data from Destatis revealed on Friday.

Retail sales decreased 1.1 percent on a monthly basis, in contrast to the 0.9 percent rise in March. Sales were expected to grow 0.3 percent.

Sales in the food sector edged down 0.1 percent and non-food retail dropped 1.3 percent. Year-on-year, retail sales growth softened to 2.3 percent from 3.3 percent a month ago. Nonetheless, the pace of increase was slower than the forecast of 1.8 percent.

In e-commerce and mail order, sales in April registered a decline of 0.2 percent in real terms.