| Actual | Previous | Revised | |
| Month over Month | -0.2% | 0.6% | 0.4% |
| Year over Year | -0.1% | 2.3% | 1.1% |
Highlights
Retail sales 0.2 percent lower in February on a volume basis while contracting 0.1 percent year-on-year.
Food sales were down 0.5 percent month-on-month on a seasonally adjusted basis, with the year-on-year result falling by the same amount. Sales of non-food items were up 0.1 percent from a month ago and 0.2 percent higher than a year ago.
Based on value, retail sales were unchanged from January, and 1.6 percent higher than February of last year.
On this basis, online sales were 8.3 percent higher than a year ago, while those at large-scale distributors increased 1.9 percent. Smaller retailers saw their sales gain a more modest 0.5 percent over February of last year.
In the coming months, sales are likely to be impacted by the conflict in the Middle East as higher fuel prices will eat into disposable income which in turn will crimp discretionary spending. What looked like a solid beginning of the year for consumer spending has seen that somewhat dampened in February, with March most likely to show a decline.
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.