EZ retail sales fall in July - Eurostat

Eurozone retail sales fell unexpectedly in June as inflationary pressures started to weigh on consumer behaviour, official data revealed on Friday.

Sales fell 0.3% month on month in June, compared with a 0.6% rise in May, according to revised figures published by the European Union statistics agency, Eurostat. On an annual basis, retail sales fell 1.4% in June.

"The slide in retail sales in June was much worse than the increase we had expected, but the significant upward revision to May’s headline—previously 0%—toughens the blow and means retail sales fared better than we forecast in Q2 overall," said economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com