German Retail Sales plunge 6.9% YoY in January vs. -6.1% expected

• German Retail Sales plunged 6.9% YoY in January vs. -6.1% expected.
• Retail Sales in Germany came in at -0.3% MoM in January vs. 2.0% expected.

According to the official figures released by Destatis on Tuesday, Germany's Retail Sales dropped by 0.3% MoM in January versus 2.0% expected and -5.3% previous,

On an annualized basis, the bloc’s Retail Sales slumped by another 6.9% in January versus the -6.1% expected and a 6.4% decline seen in December.

FX implications

The Euro is unperturbed by the terrible German data. At the time of writing, the EUR/USD pair trades at 1.0535, down 0.10% on the day. 

About German Retail Sales

The Retail Sales released by the Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland is a measure of changes in sales of the German retail sector. It shows the performance of the retail sector in the short term. Percent changes reflect the rate of changes of such sales. The changes are widely followed as an indicator of consumer spending. Positive economic growth is usually anticipated as "bullish" for the EUR, while a low reading is seen as negative, or bearish, for the EUR.