German retail sales decline more than expected

The Federal Statistics Office said that retail sales in Germany fell 4.5% in January versus 9.1% in December, and analysts had expected retail sales in Europe's largest economy to decline by 0.3% in January.

On an annual basis, retail sales in Germany declined 8.7% in the twelve months to January, retail sales of clothing decreased 76.6% in January, while online retail sales increased 31.7% in January.

Data also showed today that Germany's unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 6.0% in February, and the number of unemployed rose by 9,000 to 2.752 million amid measures to shut down the economy due to the coronavirus pandemic.