Italian Retail Sales Decline, French Sentiment Flat

Arthi Gupta
26 Jun, 2012
New York City

German consumer confidence is likely to rise in July and confidence among French households remained unchanged in June. Swiss consumption index fell in May. The Dutch economy expanded in the first quarter and Italian retail sales fell more than estimated in April.

[R]1:30 PM Frankfurt – German consumer confidence is likely to rise in July and confidence among French households remained unchanged in June. Swiss consumption index fell in May. The Dutch economy expanded in the first quarter and Italian retail sales fell more than estimated in April.[/R]

German Confidence to Rise

Confidence among German consumers is likely to rise in July, a survey by market research group GfK showed today.

The consumer confidence index for July rose to 5.8 from 5.7 in June.

French Sentiment Flat

Confidence among French households remained unchanged in June, data released by statistics office Insee showed.

The consumer confidence index remained unchanged at 90 in June. The measure of households'' expectations of their financial situation in the next twelve months dropped to -17 in June from -16 in May.

Swiss Consumption Indicator Falls

Switzerland''s consumption index dropped in May, data from UBS showed.

The consumption indicator fell to 1.05 points in May from 1.37 in April.

Swedish Output Price Inflation Rises

Sweden''s producer price inflation index increased 0.3% on an annual basis in May, data released by Statistics Sweden showed.

Output prices of goods meant for the domestic market fell 0.3% from last year in May.

On a monthly basis, output prices decreased 0.5% in May.

Dutch Economy Expands

The Dutch economy expanded in the first quarter, according to final data from Statistics Netherlands released today.

The economy grew 0.3% sequentially in the first quarter following a 0.6% fall in the fourth quarter of 2011.

From a year ago, gross domestic product contracted 0.8% in the first quarter.

Italian Retail Sales Decline

Italy''s retail sales volume decreased a seasonally adjusted 1.6% on a monthly basis in April, data released by statistics office Istat showed.

Sales of food products and non-food products dropped 1.5% each in April compared to March.

In the three months ended April, on average retail sales increased 0.2% compared to the preceding three months, the agency said.