Retail sales in September fell 3.2% in calendar-and
inflation-adjusted terms, compared with August, the Federal
Statistics Office said Friday. That was a significantly bigger drop
than the 0.8% decline economists had forecast in a Dow Jones
Newswires survey. Also, retail sales growth for August was revised
down to 1.5% from a first estimate of 2.5%.
Retail sales are very a volatile indicator, prone to large
revisions.
On an annual basis, retail sales were up 2.3%, the statistics
office Destatis said. In the first nine months of the year retail
sales increased 1.3% in real terms compared with a year
earlier.
The annual figures showed a 4.2% rise in food, beverages and
tobacco sales, and a 1.0% rise in non-food items in real terms.
Elsewhere, however, sales in textiles, clothing, shoes and leather
goods plunged 7.3%, Destatis said.
The dismal data come as surveys suggest that consumer sentiment
in Germany is set to improve. The GfK survey released last week
showed that German consumer confidence is expected to rebound in
November, indicating that German consumers may have become less
concerned about recent global conflicts and their impact on
economic growth.
Write to Emese Bartha at emese.bartha@wsj.com
10-31-14 0321ET
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires