Euro zone retail sales dropped in July by 0.5% compared to the previous month, an initial estimate released today by the EU's Eurostat statistics agency showed.
However the volume of trade in the 12 nations using the euro single currency remained stable year-on-year, it said. Analysts had expected only a decrease of 0.3% over the month.
In the 25-nation European Union, retail trade decreased by 0.2% in July from June but grew by 0.9% over the 12 months.
