Euro-zone retail sales growth likely to have slowed in March

Euro-zone retail sales growth (10.00 BST) is likely to have slowed in March. Sales volumes dropped by 0.2% m/m in February, their first fall in five months. 

Country-level data, which cover around 60% of euro-zone-wide retail trade, suggest that they fell again in March. Even so, the outlook for consumer spending is fairly bright. 

"We think that euro-zone sales fell by around 0.9%. This would bring the annual growth rate down from 3.0% in February to around 2.0% in April." notes Capital Economics in a report