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Euro zone retail sales weaker than forecast
The pace of the euro zone's economic contraction slowed down quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of this year, the EU's statistics office confirmed on Wednesday, but retail sales in April pointed to continued weakness in household demand. The European Union's statistics office confirmed its earlier estimates that gross domestic product in the 17 countries using the euro fell 0.2 percent quarter-on-quarter in the January-March period, for a 1.1 percent year-on-year contraction. That came after a 0.6 percent decline in euro zone quarterly output in the previous three months. The smaller fall in the first ... (full story)