Retail sales in Germany declined in 2002 for the first time in five years, as Europe's largest economy ground to a halt and unemployment rose. Sales fell a real 2.3pc and a nominal 2.0pc in 2002 from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Federal Statistics Office. That was the first full year decline in sales since 1997, when sales fell a real 1.7pc or a nominal 1.1pc.
The German economy expanded at its slowest pace in almost a decade last year, with GDP growing by just 0.2pc, down from 0.6pc in 2001. That marks the slowest growth for the two trillion euro economy since 1993, when it contracted by 1.1pc. The statistics office also said that retail sales fell in the run up to Christmas, declining by a real 0.7pc in December from November and were down 3.2pc on a year-on-year basis. ///www.fxcentre.com