Eurozone retail sales slow for second straight month in Sep, driven by drop in non-food items

Retail sales in eurozone slowed for the second straight month during September, driven by fall in sales of non-food items with the sharpest declines witnessed in Germany, Portugal and Slovenia.

Retail sales in the 19 countries sharing the euro fell by 0.2 percent in September from August, data released by the European Union's statistics office Eurostat showed Monday. Compared to the same month last year, retail sales were up 1.1 percent.

A Reuters poll of 17 economists had produced an average forecast of a decline of 0.3 percent for the monthly and 1.3 percent for the annual figure of the volatile indicator. On Monday, Eurostat adjusted August's monthly reading to -0.2 percent from -0.1 percent previously, with the yearly number adjusted upwards to 1.2 percent from 0.6 percent.

In EU 28, sales rose 2.2 percent following 2.6 percent increase in the previous month. On a month-on-month basis, retail sales declined for a second straight month in September, down 0.2 percent, same as in the previous month.

Meanwhile, sales also dropped for second consecutive month in EU28, falling 0.2 percent after a 0.1 percent decrease in August.