| Actual | Previous | |
| Month over Month | -0.8% | 0.5% |
| Year over Year | 0.9% | 1.3% |
Highlights
Retail sales fell at their fastest pace in at least two years in December, with consumers spending 0.8 percent less than they did in November when the value of outlays increased 0.5 percent. Using a year-on-year comparison, sales were up 0.9 percent, marking the ninth consecutive months of gains.
Food and non-food sales declined 0.9 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, in December indicating the decline is broad in nature.
Sales at large retailers slowed to 0.6 percent in December from 2.1 percent the previous month, while those at smaller stores were up 0.8 percent. E-commerce sales gained 3.1 percent, although that is the slowest pace since a 2.9 percent increase in July.
On a volume basis, sales fell 0.9 percent in December and were down 0.2 percent year on year. Fourth-quarter sales were up a marginal 0.1 percent and unchanged from the last three months of 2024. While an improvement over dismal third quarter results, retail sales will make no significant contribution to fourth quarter GDP.
Recent consumer sentiment data continued to show a cautious consumer, with the index having risen to 96.8 in December from 96.6 the month before. The next sentiment report is scheduled for the end of the month, and it remains to be seen if confidence has picked up at all.
Definition
Retail sales measure the total receipts at stores that sell durable and nondurable goods. The headline data are expressed in nominal terms but volume statistics are also available. Autos are excluded. Only a very limited breakdown of subsector performance is available in the first report but much greater detail is provided in the following month's release. The Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) is the main producer of official statistics in Italy.
Description
With consumer spending a large part of the economy, market players continually monitor spending patterns. Retail sales are a measure of consumer well-being. The pattern in consumer spending is often the foremost influence on stock and bond markets. For stocks, strong economic growth translates to healthy corporate profits and higher stock prices. For bonds, the focus is whether economic growth goes overboard and leads to inflation. Ideally, the economy walks that fine line between strong growth and excessive (inflationary) growth.