EZ Nov Retail Sales Plunge On Fresh Lockdowns

EZ NOV RET SALES -6.1% M/M, -2.9% Y/Y; OCT +1.4% M/M

M/M retail sales slumped by 6.1% in Nov, worse than market expectations looking for a smaller drop of 3.4%.

Nov's decline marks the sharpest decrease since Apr, as several countries went into lockdown due to a strong increase in infection rates.

Annual sales recorded the first negative reading since May, falling by 2.9% in Nov.

Nov's decline was broad-based with every major category registering monthly drops.

Food sales edged down 1.7% after gaining 2.0% in Oct, while non-food products plummeted by 8.9%, led by a sharp fall of clothing and footwear sales (-17.0%).

Fuel sales plunged by 10.6% in Nov following a decrease of 4.1% in the previous month.

Among the member states, the largest m/m drops were observed in France (-18.0%), Belgium (-15.9%) and Austria (-9.9%), while the Netherlands (+2.6%), Germany (+1.9%) and Malta (+1.8%) posted the largest gains.