Mubasher: Eurozone retail sales declined by 1.6% in December 2018 compared with a 0.8% rise in November, data by the Eurozone’s statistical office, the Eurostat, revealed on Tuesday.

Moreover, retail trade in the 28-member European Union (EU28) shrank 1.4% last December, after growing by 1% in the prior month.

However, on an annual basis, the index measuring retail trade volume rose 0.8% in December 2018 for the Eurozone, and 1.2% in the EU28.

The monthly retail volume growth in the Eurozone last December came from drops of 2.7% for non-food products, 0.3% for food, drinks and tobacco sales, whereas automobile fuel sales edged up 0.5%.

The fall in the volume of retail sales for the EU28 was driven by declines of 2.6% in sales of non-food products, 0.4% for food, drinks and tobacco, while automotive fuel sales went up 0.7%.

The biggest drops in total retail sales were observed in Germany at 4.3%, Sweden at 2.5%, and Estonia at 2%.

On the other hand, Austria recorded a rise of 0.7%, while Portugal and Ireland saw increases of 0.6% and 0.5% respectively.

By 10:11 am GMT, the EUR/USD pair fell 0.17% to $1.1418.