German retail sales rose in April by 5 per cent month-on-month but were down 0.7 per cent year-on-year when calculated in real terms, the Federal Statistics Office said today.
The numbers beat the consensus of economists' expectations for a drop of 1.8 per cent year-on-year and a rise of 0.8 per cent month-on-month.
The monthly rise, adjusted for seasonal and calendar factors, follows a real decline of 2.5 per cent in March. The March figure was revised from an earlier reported 1.9 per cent drop.
In nominal terms, unadjusted for inflation, retail sales rose 1.2 per cent year-on-year and 5 per cent on the month.
German retail sales data tend to be volatile and give an incomplete picture of private consumer spending because the figures exclude such key items as spending on package holidays, cars and petrol.