Eurozone retail sales disappoint, non-food sales fall for third month

Retail sales in the eurozone unexpectedly fell in January, according to official data released on Friday.

Euro-area retail sales fell 0.1% month-to-month in January when the market had forecast a 0.3% increase.

The year-on-year rate was unchanged at 1.2%.

While it was a downbeat headline, the data was more uncertain than usual as it did not include Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and Ireland.

"Our assumption is that Eurostat has made estimates for these data, but next month’s report will give us a clearer picture," said economist Claus Vistesen at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

He pointed out that month-to-month declines in Germany and France "suggest that the story of a poor start to Q1 won’t change", while non-food retail sales falling for a third month running was "not a good sign".

"We think consumers’ spending in the Eurozone will slow in this year, but not collapse, so we would expect a rebound in the non-food sales data soon," Vistesen said.