European Daily Catch: Retail Sales Stabilizing?
Today's real retail sales gave the ECB and EU heads of state another reason to keep their fingers crossed for stability of the Euro area economy (.pdf of release). In January, volume adjusted retail sales increased 0.3% in the Euro area (EA) and broke a 4-month trend downward. On a 3-month annualized basis, though, real retail sales are falling at a 2.2% pace. Therefore, on a trended basis the second derivative may be stabilizing but the first derivative remains conspicuously negative.
I suppose that the ECB and EU heads of state will take this month of reprieve to pat themselves on the back for policy well done. However, in looking at the cross section of the monthly gains, France was the primary driver of the regional improvement, +2.1% over the month. We're not out of the woods yet.
Greece, Spain, and Italy haven't reported for January, so we'll have to wait on the over or under regarding revisions. I'll take the under, however, given that Spanish and Italian service PMIs are in the low 40′s with the employment component a serious drag (.pdf of the Markit release).