Italian retail sales grow above expectations in June

Italian retail sales grew in the month of June. On a sequential basis, retail sales rose 1.9 percent, as compared with consensus expectations of a rise of 1.4 percent. The quantity sold in June was up 2 percent in the month-on-month series. In the second quarter, adjusted for seasonal variation, saw a slight increase, growing 0.1 percent both in value and volume terms. On a year-on-year basis, the value of sales rose 1.3 percent, while volume of sales rose 1.5 percent.

Large scale distribution was up 1.7 percent year-on-year and small scale distribution was estimated to be unchanged from June 2018. E-commerce rose 15.4 percent in June on a year-on-year basis.

Looking at the value of sales for non-food products, the most solid growth in sales were seen for computers and telecommunications equipment and shoes, leather goods and travel items, while the largest falls were seen in stationery, books, newspapers and magazines and pharmaceutical products.

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