Eurozone retail sales surpass forecasts

Retail sales in the eurozone beat expectations in February, as “resilient” consumers continued to spend despite concerns about region's economic outlook.

The volume of retail trade rose by 0.4% in the eurozone in February on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office. That was down on January’s growth of 0.9%, but marginally above a consensus for a 0.3% improvement.

Across all 28 member states, the volume of retail trade increased 0.4%, against growth of 1% in January.

Sales of non-food products increased by 0.9% and by 0.1% for food, drinks and tobacco, while automotive fuel declined 0.7%.

Year-on-year, the adjusted retail sales index for February 2019 increased 2.8% in the eurozone and 3.3% across the EU. That was above consensus forecasts for 2.3% growth and ahead of January’s 2.2% improvement.

Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “Our base case is that sales increased 0.2%, which would be enough for a quarter-on-quarter rate of 0.6%, slightly less than the 0.9% growth in the fourth quarter but still enough to support the idea of a resilient consumer in the face of slowing growth in manufacturing.”

Of individual eurozone countries, Germany was one of the best performers, reporting 4.8% year-on-year growth. France saw its volume of retail trade improve 2%.