Retail sales in the 19 countries sharing the euro fell by 0.2% in September from August, new figures from the European Union's statistics office Eurostat show today.
September was the second month of falling sales, mainly caused by a drop in sales of non-food products, Eurostat said, with the sharpest declines seen in Germany, Portugal and Slovenia.
Compared to the same month last year, euro zone retail sales were up 1.1%.
A Reuters poll of 17 economists had produced an average forecast of a decline of 0.3% for the monthly and 1.3% for the annual figure of the volatile indicator.
Eurostat also adjusted August's monthly reading to -0.2% from -0.1% previously, with the yearly number adjusted upwards to 1.2% from 0.6%.
