Eurozone retail sales mixed at end of 2017
Eurozone retail volumes fell month-on-month at the end of last year, but rose as expected on a year-on-year basis.
Retail sales in the eurozone fell 1.1% month-on-month in December after a strong prior month was revised up to 2.0% from 1.5% but worse than the 1.0% that had been forecast.
The main drag was from falling sales in clothing and electronic equipment, which suggested the monthly difference was heavily influenced by Black Friday sales in November, though sales of food and fuel also slipped 0.7%, with automotive fuel down 1.5%. Non-food products volumes were 1.2% lower.
For the UK, retail sales were down 1.3% after the 3.2% Black Friday-boosted rise the month before.
December 2017's calendar-adjusted retail sales index was up 1.9% compared with December 2016, and was also 2.4% higher across all 28 countries of the European Union.
Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, said the average retail trade for the year 2017, compared with 2016, rose by 2.6% in both the euro area and EU28.
While the headline number was weak, the strong upward revisions to the November data were a positive surprise, said Claus Vistesen as Pantheon Macroeconomics, with Black Friday likely to be the key driver.
"These data send a clear signal that consumers pushed forward Christmas shopping in November during the Black Friday sales to the detriment of the December numbers.
"The upward revisions mean that retail sales was stronger than we expected in Q4, but it doesn’t salvage the quarter as a whole. We estimate that sales rose 0.3%, half the pace in Q3. The good news is that survey data suggest that year-over-year growth will snap back strongly, signalling a solid quarter-on-quarter rise in Q1."