Retail sales across eurozone suffer biggest drop in 2.5 years

Retail sales across eurozone suffer biggest drop in 2.5 years

PanARMENIAN.Net - Official figures show that retail sales across the eurozone suffered their biggest drop in over two and a half years in the crucial shopping month of December, according to the Associated Press.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, says retail sales across the bloc fell by 1.6 percent compared with the previous month. That was way worse than the 0.5 percent fall anticipated in the markets and represents the biggest monthly decline since May 2011.

The figures will likely reinforce the pressure on the European Central Bank to further ease its monetary policy at its monthly meeting on Thursday.

A broad range of economic indicators have shown that the recovery in the eurozone is failing to gain traction at a time when inflation rates are stubbornly low.

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