German Retail Sales Rise

Retail sales in Germany rose in May, nearly making good the decline seen the previous month, data showed on Tuesday. German retail sales rose by 1.2 percent month-on-month in May in seasonally and calendar-adjusted terms, the federal statistics office, Destatis, calculated in a statement. In April, retail sales had declined by 1.5 percent month-on-month. On a 12-month basis, German retailers reported an increase in business of 2.7 percent in May. But that was partly because there was one more shopping day in May this year than in May 2004, the statisticians noted. Taking the first five months of 2005 as a whole, retail sales rose by a nominal one percent on a 12-month basis and were up by 0.6 percent in real or price-adjusted terms, Destatis said.