Spanish retails sales up for consecutive 12 months

In spite of not living up to the expected growth of 3.3% y/y and that of July of 4.2%, Spanish retail sales managed to grow 3.2% y/y, which makes the consecutive growth of retail sales, longest since crisis.

In August, retail sales climbed 3.2 per cent year on year. Such a long run of expansion has not been seen since before the crisis. Chart courtesy Financial Times.

This year Spanish economy has been showing resilience, however Spanish assets namely stocks and bonds underperformed European peers as two election (election in Catalonia, general election) weighed on sentiment.

However since Catalonian is done with last Sunday, Spanish assets have finally started catching upto their European counterparts. General election is scheduled for December, where current incumbent Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is likely to have tougher time.

His only hope is that Economy recovers fast enough by the time so that his party can claim victory of the imposed austerity, however  unemployment still hovering above 20%, it won't be easy to convince people for another term in office.

Spanish benchmark stock index is currently trading at 9450, up 0.5% for the day.