Eurozone retail sales inched higher in January

Retail sales in the eurozone rebounded slightly in January while December's decline was revised upwards, according to figures out on Wednesday from Eurostat.

Sales volumes improved by just 0.1% in the first month of the year, as expected by economists after a 0.6% fall in December, which was adjusted from the initial reading of a 1.1% decline.

However, compared with January 2023, sales were down 1.0% with the annual decline accelerating from a revised 0.5% the month before.

Month-on-month, sales of food, drinks and tobacco gained 1.0%, and automotive fuel rose 1.7%, outweighing a 0.2% drop in non-food products.

The highest monthly growth rates were seen in Luxembourg (+7.6%), Romania (+3.8%) and Cyprus (+1.5%), while the largest falls were seen in Estonia (-2.6%), Slovakia (-1.0%) and Latvia (-0.8%).

Commenting on the data, economist Alexander Valentin from Oxford Economics said: "Despite today's marginal uptick, retail sales are close to the lows last seen in April 2021. We expect another decline this quarter before a gradual recovery ensues over the course of this year on the back of real income gains."