German Retail Sales Drop Unexpectedly

(RTTNews) - Germany's retail sales dropped unexpectedly in May as both food and non-food retail sectors registered contractions, data from Destatis revealed on Monday. Retail sales decreased 1.6 percent month-on-month in May but better than the 0.6 percent drop seen in April. Sales were expected to grow 0.5 percent.

Data showed that sales in food sector were down 1.3 percent and that in non-food retail sector eased 2.2 percent. Sales in online and mail-order retail registered a monthly fall of 1.4 percent.

On a yearly basis, retail sales increased by real 1.6 percent, slower than the 2.9 percent growth logged in the previous month.