Retail sales in the 12-nation euro zone grew much faster than expected in March, led by strong growth in Portugal, Belgium, Spain and France, the European Union's statistics office (Eurostat) said on Wednesday. Eurostat said retail sales rose 1.4 percent year-on-year in March after rising a revised 0.8 percent in February with growth driven equally by food, drink and tobacco and non-food products and beating a Reuters poll consensus forecast of an 0.8 percent rise. The volume of retail sales was 0.3 percent higher in March than in February, beating the consensus forecast of a 0.3 percent month-on-month decline. The March rise takes the total retail trade index to levels last seen at the beginning of 2004 after a steady increase since September last year. Among euro zone countries, retail sales continued to grow the fastest in Portugal with a 4.3 percent year-on-year gain, Europe's biggest economy, Germany, saw only a 0.6 percent increase. The European Commission expects consumer demand to become the main driver of economic growth in the euro zone later this year and in 2006. But indicators of business and consumer confidence have been on the decline in the euro zone in March and April as oil prices remained around $50 per barrel and unemployment inched up to 8.9 percent of the workforce