German retail sales unexpectedly drop in February

German retail sales unexpectedly fell in February, according to figures released by Destatis on Thursday.

Retail sales were down 0.4% compared with the previous month, missing expectations of a 0.3% increase.

Meanwhile, January’s figures were revised lower to show a 0.1% drop compared with the 0.7% growth initially estimated.

Compared with the same month a year ago, however, retail sales rose 5.4%, which was a much bigger increase than the 2.2% forecast by economists.