German Retailers Report Drop in August

Retail sales in Germany fell slightly in August, as high oil prices weighed on consumer sentiment in the eurozone's biggest economy, official data showed on Friday. German retail sales slipped by 0.8 percent month-on-month in August in seasonally, price- and calendar-adjusted terms, the federal statistics office, Destatis, said in a statement. In July, retail sales had slipped by 0.5 percent month-on-month. On a 12-month basis, however, German retailers reported an increase in business of 2.2 percent in August. But that was largely because there was one more shopping day in August this year than in August 2004, the statisticians noted. Taking the first eight months of 2005 as a whole, retail sales rose by a nominal 1.0 percent on a 12-month basis and were up by 0.7 percent in real or price-adjusted terms, Destatis said.