German retail sales fall more than expected in October

German retail sales fell more than expected in October, down 1.5% compared with the previous month, according to official data published on Friday.

The figures compared with a 1% rise in October 2023 and expectations of a 0.3% decline, the Federal Statistics Office said.

In a separate announcement, import prices were 0.8% lower in October 2024 compared with October 2023. Compared with the same month a year earlier, the rate of change was -1.3% in September 2024, and +0.2% in August 2024.

Meanwhile, the number of people in work remained almost unchanged in October, according to provisional calculations of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the seasonally adjusted number of persons in employment remained virtually unchanged compared with the previous month.

Prior to this, month-on-month employment figures in August and September 2024 dropped by 24,000 and 18,000, respectively.

Adjusted for seasonal and irregular effects, the number of unemployed stood at 1.51 million in October 2024, which was a decline of 10,000 people on September 2024 (-0.7%). Compared with the previous month, the adjusted unemployment rate remained at 3.4%.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com