German Retail Sales decline 1.6% in December vs. +0.2% expected

• Retail Sales in Germany unexpectedly contracted on a monthly basis in December.
• EUR/USD continues to fluctuate in a tight range near 1.0400.

Retail Sales in Germany declined by 1.6% on a monthly basis in December, Destatis reported on Friday. This reading followed the 0.6% decrease recorded in November and came in worse than the market expectation for an increase of 0.2%.

On a yearly basis, Retail Sales rose by 1.8%, falling short of analysts’ estimate of 2.5%.

Market reaction

These data don’t seem to be having a noticeable impact on the Euro’s valuation. At the time of press, EUR/USD was trading virtually unchanged on the day at 1.0395.