German retail sales record shock fall in August

German retail sales recorded an unexpected month-on-month 1.2% fall in August, well below forecasts of a 0.5% rise, official data released on Friday showed.

On an annualised basis retail sales fell by 2.3%. Food sales were down by 1.2% month-on-month, while non-food retail sales slid by 0.7% as online sales plunged by 8.7%.

"Consumers’ spending, ex-services and cars, fell sharply in Germany midway through Q3 as it seems the boost to real incomes from falling inflation and rising wage growth is failing to lift consumption, at least to the extent we expected," said analysts at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com