Euro-Region Retail Sales Unexpectedly Fell in December: Economy

European retail sales unexpectedly declined in December, led by Germany and France, as unemployment at a 14-year high and government spending cuts sapped consumer demand.

Sales dropped 0.4 percent in the month after a similar decrease in November, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. Economists had forecast a gain of 0.3 percent, the median of 16 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey showed. Sales slipped 1.6 percent from a year earlier.