German retail sales undershoot forecasts as mobility declines
German retail sales undershot forecasts by a wide margin in October due to mobility restrictions and in part because of the drag from rising prices.
According to the Federal Office of Statistics, in calendar and seasonally adjusted terms, retail sales turnover dipped at a month-on-month pace of 0.3% in real terms (consensus: 0.9%).
In nominal terms the outcome was a bit better with a rise of 0.2% recorded.
Versus the same month one year before, and also in real terms, retail sales were down by 2.9%, but even so 3.5% above their level of February 2020, when the pandemic began.
"Looking ahead, Q4 looks set to be a non-event for retail, at best. We previously estimated that retail sales would rise modestly, by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter," said Melanie Debono, Senior Europe Economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
"It is now more likely that they will fall over the quarter as mobility continued to fall in November and restrictions were tightened near the middle of the month to deal with the surge in virus cases. The discovery of Omicron suggests the risks to this forecast are to the downside. That said, online orders are a wild card; these held up well during past episodes of restrictions and lockdowns."