For the countries in the European Union, conditions have not been looking too bright lately. Add to that the fact that during October, retail sales in the member states fell from the previous month.

According to a recently released report from Eurostat, October's retail sales fell by 1.2 percent from September. This was double the amount of the previous month's decrease from August, which was 0.6 percent. Economists had predicted that sales would decline by 0.2 percent. The countries with the largest drops in retail sales for October were Portugal, Finland and Germany. There were some member states that performed better than others, and the nations with the highest retail increases were Ireland, Lithuania and Belgium, the Eurostat study stated.

Perhaps the biggest contributor to the total decline was a large drop in retail sales throughout Germany, which fell by 2.8 percent in October, reports The Associated Press. Germany is one of the strongest economies in the European Union, so any negative impacts within the country are certain to affect other nations. There is much hope for a quick recovery, but economists believe it could be some time before conditions begin to improve, the news source wrote.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, December 10th, 2012 at 3:11 am .