Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Eurozone Retail Spending Down Again in August


Numbers out today from Eurostat:
In August 2011 compared with July 2011, the volume of retail trade fell by 0.3% in the euro area (EA17) and by 0.2% in the EU27. In July retail trade rose by 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.
In August 2011 compared with August 2010, the retail sales index decreased by 1.0% in the euro area and by 0.8% in the EU27.
It's not a precipitous slide at this point, but it certainly does seem that the Eurozone consumer is slowly retrenching.  That's not going to help the Eurozone's problems - after all, consumers who are cutting back on eating out and shopping are probably not planning romantic getaways to Greece, Italy, or Spain either.

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