Eurozone: Retail sales drop partly reflects Black Friday popularity - ING

Bert Colijn, senior economist at ING, notes that the Eurozone’s retail sales fell by -1.6% month-on-month in December, after a jump of 0.8% in November.

Key Quotes

“The decline was across product categories, with the exception of fuel sales which profited from lower oil prices. Annual growth in sales dipped to 0.8%, the weakest since September.”

“The rise in popularity of Black Friday means that December sales are looking overly weak. As the shift from December to November shopping has not yet ended, seasonal adjustment will fail to correct for this shift for now.”

“Looking at the three-month moving average of retail sales which mutes the Black Friday effect, we see a recovery of growth in sales towards the end of the year after a stagnation in sales over the summer. While growth in sales has picked up for the holiday months, the combined annual growth for November-December 2018 was weaker than in previous years at just 1% compared to 2.8% in 2017, reflecting concerns about the global economy.”