Euro zone consumer sales stand still in May

In May, monthly retail sales in the euro zone didn’t change after a tiny sag the previous month, as official data published on Tuesday by Eurostat disclosed. It dropped a hint at stagnant consumption in the 19-country bloc.

The European statistics office told that in May, monthly prices at factory gates tacked on by 0.8%, which is higher than market hopes for 0.4% leap, confirming the stronger inflationary pressure in the European Union.

The volatile as well as often updated indicator of retail sales revealed that in May euro zone consumers spent the same as in April, exactly when the volume of sales demonstrated a 0.1% dive.

Market experts surveyed by Reuters had predicted May’s 0.1% monthly ascend.

In contrast with 2017, in May retail this year sales managed to leap by 1.4% than in April, although the jump turned out to be lower than the 1.5% forecast by financial markets and it happened to be slower than the updated-down 1.6% surge in the previous month.

EU consumers shelled out more on drinks, tobacco and food on a monthly basis, while they cut their shopping of footwear and textile, whose sales slumped by 3.1%. As for purchases of fuel, they were intact on the month.

Consumers' lackluster hunger for shopping could partly have been provoked by soaring prices, with inflation tacking on to 1.9% in May in the euro zone in contrast with 1.3% last month. By the way, according to fresh estimates from Eurostat, inflation managed to jump to 2% in June.

A similar trend was observed at factory gates, where prices tacked on by 0.8 percent in May on the month having been intact for two consecutive months. Industry prices soared by 3% on the year, confounding hopes for a 2.7% ascend.