Eurozone retail sales down in new report

The Bloomberg Eurozone Retail Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), an indicator which surveys economic conditions in the euro retail sector. Retail sales in the three key eurozone countries struggled this month against a background of consumer caution and poor weather.

The PMI, which provides data a month ahead of government-issued figures, fell a record 6.4 points from 48.2 in March to a survey low of 41.8 in April. A 50.0 reading marks a no-change level and month-on-month April was well below this with the steepest decline in sales since January 2004 when Bloomberg first started collecting the data. Retailers blamed a combination of bad weather, the timing of Easter, poor consumer confidence, squeezed household budgets due to rising food and energy prices for the steep drop in sales at the start of the second quarter. In Italy, ongoing political uncertainty was an additional factor cited by retailers.

Italian retail sales showed the largest fall of the three countries, with retail spending dropping at the fastest rate in the survey's history by a wide margin. Italian sales have now fallen for fourteen straight months.

German sales fell sharply, with the rate of decline similar to the three-and-a-half year record seen at the turn of the year. The index dropped from 51.5 to 44.6, representing a marked turnaround from the growth seen in February and March.

French retail sales showed the weakest decline of the three countries; nevertheless sales fell at the fastest monthly rate since January 2006 (the index slumped from 53.3 to 46.2). The April fall contrasted with robust increases in sales over the first quarter.

Sales fell below their levels of a year ago at the greatest extent yet recorded by the survey: The year-on-year sales index plummeted to a new low of 35.7, from 49.3 in March.

All five product sectors covered by the survey reported a fall in sales revenues compared to a year ago in April, led by clothing & footwear retailers, who reported a survey-record rate of decline as sales of seasonal clothing were hit by cold weather and the early Easter.

Bloomberg is the leading global provider of data, news and analytics. Their Eurozone Retail PMI is the first monthly report of its kind in Europe, providing businesses, governments, central banks, economists and analysts the most accurate and up to date insights and data into the Eurozone retail sector.

The index, compiled exclusively for Bloomberg by NTC Economics Ltd, questions more than 1,000 retail executives in Germany, France and Italy. These countries together represent approximately 75% of total Eurozone retail sales. National data are weighted together according to each country's contribution to total Eurozone sales to form the Bloomberg Eurozone Retail PMI.