Euro zone retail sales up by 2.4%

Euro zone retail sales rose 0.7 percent in August from July and was up 2.4 percent from a year ago, the European Union (EU)'s statistical office Eurostat said Wednesday.

The figures are an improvement on the July figures. Eurostat on Wednesday revised July retail sales from its previously estimated monthly rise of 0.6 percent to 0.4 percent, and from an estimated annual increase of 2.5 percent to 1.9 percent.

Compared with July this year, food, drinks and tobacco sales fell in August by 0.4 percent in 12 countries using the euro while the non-food sector increased by 1.6 percent.

Year on year, retail trade of food, drinks and tobacco gained 0.7 percent and the non-food sector grew by 3.8 percent.

For the whole 25-nation EU, retail sales grew by 0.6 percent over a month and 3.3 percent over a year.

Among the Member States for which data are available, Latvia recorded the highest annual growth rate of 20.6 percent, followed by Estonia and Lithuania.

Falls on sales were recorded in Slovenia, with an annual decline of 2.7 percent, and Belgium, with a drop of 1.6 percent.

Source: Xinhua