Germany's retail sales faced a more significant drop than anticipated in October, primarily due to a decline in the non-food retail sector, according to data released by Destatis on Friday. The data indicated a real decrease of 1.5 percent in retail sales from the previous month, surpassing the initially expected decline of 0.5 percent.
Specifically, sales in food stores saw a marginal increase of 0.1 percent month-on-month. In contrast, the non-food retail sector experienced a steeper decline of 2.2 percent in October. Annually, retail sales showed a modest growth of 1.0 percent, falling short of economists' expectations of a 3.2 percent increase.
In nominal terms, retail sales fell by 1.1 percent from the previous month but rose by 1.9 percent compared to the same period last year.
