Euro zone retail sales fall in April

BRUSSELS - Euro zone retail sales were much weaker than expected in April, data showed on Friday, down mainly due to reduced purchases of food, drinks and tobacco.

The EU's statistics office said that the volume of retail sales in the 19 countries sharing the euro fell by 1.3% month-on-month in April for a 3.9% year-on-year increase. Economists polled by Reuters had predicted a 0.3 monthly rise and a 5.4 year-on-year gain.

Retail sales had risen in the first three months of the year.

Eurostat said that sales of food, drinks and tobacco fell 2.6% on the month, while non-food products fell 0.7%, despite a 3.4% increase in online and mail order sales. Motor fuel sales increased by 1.9%.

Germany, the euro zone's largest economy, saw its sales drop by 5.4% during the month. Slovenia and Latvia were weak, while sales in Spain, Luxembourg, Ireland and Malta increased.

Slovenia and Malta had the sharpest gains a year ago, while Finland, Luxembourg and Belgium had the steepest declines.