Retail sales in the euro zone rose less than expected in April, data from the EU statistics office showed today.
Eurostat said retail sales in the 13 countries using the euro gained 0.2 per cent month-on-month for a 1.6 per cent year-on-year increase. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected rises of 0.5 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.
Retail sales, which point to the strength of consumer demand, rose by 5 per cent annually in the euro zone's second largest economy, France, and by 1.6 per cent in Spain, slowing from a 5.2 per cent jump the previous month.
They edged up 0.6 per cent annually in Germany, the currency bloc's biggest economy, ending a three-month losing streak that followed an increase in the country's value-added tax.
Consumer demand, long the weakest point of the euro zone's economic recovery, has been on the rise as unemployment falls amid robust economic growth.
Markets expect the European Central Bank, which wants to keep annual inflation at just below 2 per cent, to raise interest rates by 25 basis points to 4 per cent tomorrow and then perhaps once more later in the year.