Statistics Denmark released preliminary data on Friday, indicating a contraction in Danish retail sales in December; the first decline witnessed in five months.
Specifically, retail sales in December descended by 1.0 percent from the previous month, marking a noteworthy deviation from a 0.8 percent uptick in November.
This downward spiral was led by sales of food and other groceries, which fell by 1.2 percent in December. Subsequently, we observed a 0.9 percent decrease in the demand for clothing and other consumer products in the same month.
Year-on-year, the growth rate of retail sales in December decreased to 4.5 percent, a significant undercut from the impressive 6.1 percent growth seen in November.
Overall, a year-on-year comparison between 2022 and 2023 revealed a slump in the volume of retail sales, a decline of 0.9 percent in the latter year.
