Retail Sales (Mar 2020)...............>

EUROZONE DATA: Retail Sales (Mar 2020)

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- EZ MAR Retail Sales -11.2% M/M, -9.2% Y/Y vs. FEB +0.6% M/M 

- Sales plummeted in Mar due to Covid-19 containment measures after two

consecutive months of gains. 

- Annual sales slumped by 9.2% in Mar with non-food products and auto fuel

stores driving the decrease. 

- Mar's decline was led by a sharp drop in non-food products which plunged 23.1%

with textiles, clothing and footwear leading the way (-38.9%) 

- Auto fuel stores saw a m/m decrease of 20.8% in Mar, while food, drinks &

tobacco rose by 5.0% on the month. 

- Among the member states, France (-17.4%), Luxembourg (-16.4%) and Austria

(-16.3%) saw the largest m/m falls, while Ireland (+0.1%) posted the only gain 

- Eurostat notes that data collection was affected by Covid-19 in many member

states, leading to fewer statistical observations 

- For missing data, imputation and estimation methods were applied.