Thanks to the private consumption, Germany managed to finish the last year with rather agreeable economic performance. Not all economic and production figures were positive. Nevertheless, the retail sector, one of the primary economic engines, supported growth in one of the Europe’s largest economy. A strong uptick in sales started in November and continued until the end of the Christmas season. The final figures for December have not yet been released, while the results for November were surprising due to the growth in retail turnover which accelerated twice as fast as expected. In November 2019, retail sales in Germany jumped by 2.1 percent compared to the previous month, the German Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) reported, marking the steepest monthly increase since the beginning of last year. According to Bloomberg, the rate was expected to grow by 1 percent at most. On an annual basis, retail sales growth accelerated by 2.8 percent in November from 1.4 percent in October, while economists predicted an increase of only 1 percent.
