Retail sales in the euro zone fell unexpectedly sharply in February, dropping 0.6% from January as shoppers shunned Europe's high streets, official EU data show today.
Analysts had forecast a drop of 0.4% in the month and the outcome reflects how shaky consumer confidence is despite massive government efforts to dig their economies out of the worst global crisis since the 1930s.
Retail sales in the entire 27-nation European Union fell 1.2% in February compared with January, the EU's Eurostat data agency said.
On a 12-month basis, retail sales in the euro zone in February dropped 4% and in the EU were down 3.4%, the agency said.
Analysts said a 0.2% drop in sales in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, reflected the impact of the country's popular car trade-in scheme whereby the government pays motorists $2,500 if they scrap an old car and buy a new one.
Late last month, a survey by the GfK institute found that a budding pick-up in German consumer spirits had stalled amid a steady stream of bad economic news.
The collapse of crucial German exports and domestic industrial activity, along with rising unemployment, has made Germans more pessimistic about their future, GfK said.
Retail sales in recession-hit Britain meanwhile slumped 1.9% in February from January, worse than economists had expected and in what one expert said was a message 'that high street spending growth is back on a downward trend.'
