German Retail Sales and Unemployment Figures Deliver EUR Support

It was another busy Eurozone economic calendar this morning. German retail sales and unemployment figures were in focus along with prelim French inflation numbers for December.

The German Economy

According to Destatis, retail sales rose by 0.6% in November, following a 0.5% increase in October. Economists had forecast a 0.5% decline. Year-on-year, retail sales fell by 2.9% versus a forecasted 4.9% slide. In October, retail sales had fallen by 2.0%.

Unemployment figures were also upbeat. In December, unemployment fell by a further 23k after having fallen by 34k in November. As a result, the unemployment rate slipped from 5.3% to 5.2%. Economists had forecast a fall in unemployment of 15k and for the unemployment rate to hold steady at 5.3%.

French Inflation

According to Insee.fr, December’s annual rate of inflation held steady at 2.8% in December, according to prelim figures, which was in line with forecasts.

• Food prices increased by 1.4% versus 0.5% in November.
• Energy prices were up 18.6% versus 21.6% in November.
• Prices for manufactured products increased by 1.2% and prices for services by 1.8%.
• In November, prices for manufactured products had been up by 0.8% and services by 1.9%.
• Month-on-month, consumer prices rose by 0.2% after having risen by 0.4% in November.

Market Impact

Ahead of today’s stats, the EUR had risen to a pre-stat and current day high $1.13096 before easing back to sub-$1.13 levels.

In response today’s stats, the EUR fell to a current day low $1.12833 before rising to a post-stat high $1.13082.

At the time of writing, the EUR was up by 0.06% to $1.13031.

Next Up

ISM Manufacturing PMI and JOLT’s job openings from the U.S.