Eurozone retail sales fall more than expected

Retail sales in the eurozone fell more than expected in April declining across all major categories, according to data released on Thursday by Eurostat.

The volume of retail trade in the single-currency region was down 0.5% following a downwardly revised 0.7% gain in March.

Economists were expecting a month-on-month drop of 0.3%.

Food, drinks and tobacco sales were 0.5% lower over the month, while non-food sales excluding fuel fell by 0.1%. Fuel sales meanwhile dropped by 2.2%.

Among member states, the largest monthly falls in retail sales were recorded in Latvia (-3.3%) and Cyprus (-3.1%), while the highest increases were seen in Slovakia (+2.4%), Austria (+1.9%) and Portugal (+1.7%).