| Actual | Previous | |
| Month over Month | 0.0% | 0.8% |
| Year over Year | 1.6% | 3.7% |
Highlights
Retails sales were unchanged in April in nominal, or value, terms, while gaining 1.6 percent from a year ago.
Growth in the pharmaceutical product sector showed the largest increase, rising 5.2 percent year-on-year followed by a 3.4 percent gain in cosmetics and toiletries, and furniture, textiles and household goods.
Food sales increased 0.2 percent month-on-month, while falling 0.2 percent in the non-food category. Year-on-year respective changes were a gain of 0.6 percent and 2.6 percent.
Online sales led the gains, up 8.4 percent year-on-year, while those at smaller stores rose 2.3 percent, followed by a 0.7 percent gain at large distributors.
The results show a degree of caution among consumers, hardly surprising given the current geopolitical situation.
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.