German retail sales decreased sharply in December due to the restrictions imposed to control the spread of the coronavirus, data from Destatis revealed Monday.
Retail turnover fell 9.6 percent month-on-month in December, reversing a 1.1 percent rise in November. This was the first fall in three months and much bigger than the economists' forecast of -2.6 percent.
On a yearly basis, retail sales growth slowed to 1.5 percent from 5 percent in November. This was the slowest increase in the current eight-month sequence of growth. Economists had forecast sales to climb again by 5 percent.
Sales of food, beverages and tobacco advanced 6.3 percent annually, while non-food sales fell 1.5 percent from the previous year.
Compared to February 2020, the month before the outbreak of the corona pandemic in Germany, retail sales in December were 2.6 percent lower.
In nominal terms, retail sales decreased 9.3 percent on month but grew 2.6 percent from the same period last year.
In 2020 as a whole, retail sales grew 3.9 percent in real terms and by 5.1 percent in nominal terms.
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