2019.03.0102:22:00UTC+00German Retail Sales Rebound Tops Expectations; Biggest In Over 2 Years

German retail sales grew at a stronger-than-expected pace in January, entirely reversing a steep decline in the previous month, to log the biggest growth in over two years, preliminary data from the Federal Statistical Office showed on Friday.

Retail sales rose 3.3 percent month-on-month, which was much faster than the 1.90 percent gain economists had predicted.

The latest sales growth was the biggest since October 2016, when sales rose at the same pace.

The decline for December was revised to 3.1 percent from 4.30 percent.

On a year-on-year basis, retail sales grew 2.6 percent in January, which also exceeded economists' forecast of 1.20 percent gain.

The pace of growth was the fastest in three months. In October, sales grew 6 percent.

The December decline was revised to 1.6 percent from 2.10 percent.

Sales of food, beverages and tobacco grew 2.7 percent year-on-year and non-food sales rose 2.3 percent.

Within non-food, sales in the other retail group that includes books, jewelry and so on surged 4.1 percent. Internet and mail orders sales jumped 6.2 percent.