"The decline in euro-area December retail sales confirms our view that private consumption is likely to have fallen in the fourth quarter"
- James Ashley, senior European economist at RBC Capital Markets
Euro zone retail sales declined unexpectedly in December, said the European Union's statistics office Eurostat on Friday. Retail sales fell 0.4 per cent from November after declining by the same amount in October.
"The decline in euro-area December retail sales confirms our view that private consumption is likely to have fallen in the fourth quarter, contributing to a contraction in euro-area gross domestic product of 0.3 percent quarter on quarter," James Ashley, senior European economist at RBC Capital Markets in London, said by e-mail.
"We're not expecting any miracles from consumer spending this year, simply because we haven't got a high enough growth rate to generate jobs and stabilize the labor market," said Guillaume Menuet, an economist at Citigroup.
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