Retail Sales Falling Again In Eurozone
By Pan Pylas |
June 4, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
RETAIL sales in the 16 countries that use the euro fell by a monthly 1.2 percent in April, official figures showed yesterday, reinforcing fears that consumers are fretting about the region's debt crisis.
The drop reported by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, more than offset the upwardly revised 0.5 percent increase recorded for March and means that retail sales in the eurozone have fallen for three of the four months so far in 2010.
Analysts think that the pace of the recovery in the eurozone will depend heavily on whether consumers ratchet up their spending. And with many countries, such as Greece and Spain, introducing austerity measures to deal with their debt burdens, and with unemployment around 10 percent, the outlook for consumption does not look great.
"April's drop in eurozone retail sales confirms the weakness of the consumer sector even before fiscal tightening has really kicked in," said Jennifer McKeown, senior European economist at Capital Economics.
So far, the modest economic growth has been primarily due to a pickup in global trade.
The drop reported by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, more than offset the upwardly revised 0.5 percent increase recorded for March and means that retail sales in the eurozone have fallen for three of the four months so far in 2010.
Analysts think that the pace of the recovery in the eurozone will depend heavily on whether consumers ratchet up their spending. And with many countries, such as Greece and Spain, introducing austerity measures to deal with their debt burdens, and with unemployment around 10 percent, the outlook for consumption does not look great.
"April's drop in eurozone retail sales confirms the weakness of the consumer sector even before fiscal tightening has really kicked in," said Jennifer McKeown, senior European economist at Capital Economics.
So far, the modest economic growth has been primarily due to a pickup in global trade.
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