Germany's stock market saw little variation on Wednesday following the unexpected 1.6% decrease in national December retail sales. This unexpected drop supports the prediction of a potential recession in the first quarter and raises speculation concerning a potential European Central Bank rate reduction in April.
German import prices in December also fell by 8.5% year-on-year, a slightly smaller decrease compared to the 9.0% drop observed the previous month. Export prices also reported a 2.4% decrease compared to the previous year, following a 2.2% drop the month before, as reported by Destatis.
The primary German stock index, the DAX, increased by 11 points to 16,983 before the announcement of Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision later that day.
In related corporate news, Software AG, a software company, witnessed a 0.5% decrease following the report of a downturn in preliminary revenue for the final quarter of the year.
In contrast, Atoss Software saw a promising 3.3% increase after announcing increases in profit and revenue for the full financial year of 2023.
