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5 Oct 2015
EUR: Eurozone retail sales stabilized in August – ING
FXStreet (Delhi) – Bert Colijn, Research Analyst at ING, suggests that the Eurozone consumer did not splurge in August as retail sales were flat compared to July and the largest growth in sales were in automotive fuel at 1.8 percent growth as Europeans seem to take advantage of the lower price at the pump and use the car more, instead of taking their saved euros elsewhere to spend.
Key Quotes
“The stagnation in total retail sales is in line with a slower trend compared to the second half of 2014, even though the conditions for domestic demand are reasonable in the Eurozone.”
“The job market is performing reasonably well and real wages are higher than they were in most of the 2000s due to the low inflation rate. Even though consumer confidence has not been growing much over the past months, it is still well above its long-term average.”
“That being said, unemployment is still very high throughout the Eurozone and August was a month with significant concern about global economic conditions. Even though this is the case, the slow growth in retail sales should be a concern to the ECB.”
“France experienced its fifth increase in retail sales in a row, which comes on the back of strong consumer confidence in the Eurozone’s second largest economy. Also Spain and Portugal experienced increases.”
Key Quotes
“The stagnation in total retail sales is in line with a slower trend compared to the second half of 2014, even though the conditions for domestic demand are reasonable in the Eurozone.”
“The job market is performing reasonably well and real wages are higher than they were in most of the 2000s due to the low inflation rate. Even though consumer confidence has not been growing much over the past months, it is still well above its long-term average.”
“That being said, unemployment is still very high throughout the Eurozone and August was a month with significant concern about global economic conditions. Even though this is the case, the slow growth in retail sales should be a concern to the ECB.”
“France experienced its fifth increase in retail sales in a row, which comes on the back of strong consumer confidence in the Eurozone’s second largest economy. Also Spain and Portugal experienced increases.”