German Retail Sales Grow More Than Forecast

(RTTNews) - German retail sales grew more than expected in November as consumers brought forward their Christmas shopping to take advantage of special promotions during Black Friday, data from Destatis showed on Wednesday.

Retailers achieved 2.5 percent more sales than in November 2023, better than the expected growth of 1.9 percent. However, retail sales fell 0.6 percent on a monthly basis, confounding expectations for a growth of 0.5 percent.

In the whole year of 2024, retail sales advanced 1.3 percent in real terms from the previous year. Although the retail sales dropped 0.4 percent in the first half, this was compensated by an increase of 3.0 percent in the second half of the year.

In nominal terms, retail sales registered an increase of 2.7 percent in 2024, data showed.