Spain leads fall of Europe retail sales

Spain European retail sales declined more than economists forecast in April as the worsening debt crisis prompted consumers from Spain to Austria to reduce spending.

Sales dropped one per cent from March, when they advanced 0.3 per cent, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said on Tuesday 5 June. Economists had forecast a drop of 0.1 per cent, according to the median of 23 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. From a year earlier, April sales fell 2.5 per cent.

European companies are relying on faster-growing economies to bolster sales as the euro area’s deepening slump erodes consumer confidence and curbs spending. Prada SpA, the Italian fashion company that owns the Miu Miu brand, said on May 24 that it plans to add 260 stores in emerging markets such as Brazil and China in the next three years.

German retail sales advanced 0.6 per cent in April from the previous month, when they rose 1.6 per cent, today’s report showed. In Spain, sales fell 2.4 per cent from March, when they decreased 0.5 per cent, while Portugal saw a 2.1 per cent drop in the latest month.

Austria reported a 3.5 per cent fall in April, while French sales declined 1.5 per cent. The statistics office didn’t release data for Greece or Italy.