Euro-Region Retail Sales Declined in July, Led by Germany

European retail sales dropped in July as the region’s deepening economic slump eroded consumer demand from Germany to Spain.

Sales slipped 0.2 percent from June, when they rose 0.1 percent, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. Economists had forecast a decline of 0.2 percent, according to the median of 21 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. From a year earlier, sales dropped 1.7 percent.

In Germany, Europe’s largest economy, retail sales fell 0.9 percent from June, when they gained 0.5 percent, today’s report showed. France reported a gain of 0.9 percent, while sales fell 1.9 percent in Spain.

The statistics office didn’t report data for Greece, Cyprus or Italy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Simone Meier in Zurich at smeier@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net