Italy’s retail sales down on month, up on year

According to the data from Istat, Italy’s retail sales decreased on a monthly basis while they increased on a yearly basis.

Accordingly, the country’s retail sales decreased for two consecutive months in May by 0.1% on a monthly basis and fell behind the economists’ expectation of an increase of 0.3%. This stemmed from a decrease in the sales of food products by 0.8% and pulled down the slight increase of 0.3% in the sales of non-food products.

However, the country’s retail sales were up by 1% in May on a yearly basis due to the increases in the sales of food and non-food products by 1.1% and 0.9%, respectively.