Eurozone Retail Sales fall in September by 0.2%. Euro mixed in currency trading today. | CountingPips Forex Blog

November 5, 2008 - Forex Economic News

Eurozone Retail Sales fall in September by 0.2%. Euro mixed in currency trading today.

Eurozone Retail Sales decreased in September according to a news release by EuroStat earlier today. September retail sales declined 0.2 percent in the 15 country Eurozone after increasing by a revised 0.3 percent in August.

Euro mixed in Currency Trading The retail sales decline was less than expected as market forecasts had expected sales to decline by 0.4 percent for the month. On an annual basis, September's retail sales numbers are 1.6 percent below September 2007's level.

Contributing to the decline in retail sales was a sales decrease of 2.3 percent out of Germany which is the EU's largest economy. Contributing positively to the data were increases in sales by 2.6 percent in Luxembourg, 1.4 percent in Belgium and by 0.9 percent in France. Eurozone sales of food, drinks and tobacco was unchanged in September while non-food sales fell by 0.3 percent.

Euro mixed in Currency Trading Today.

The European Euro has been mixed today in the currency markets one day ahead of its scheduled interest rate announcement. Market forecasts are generally expecting the European Central Bank to reduce its interest rate by 50 basis points after last cutting the rate by 50 basis points on October 8th in a surprise coordinated effort with major central banks around the world. Today's trading has seen the euro decline against the US dollar as the EUR/USD trades at 1.2916 after opening at 1.2955. The euro has gained slightly today against the British pound as the EUR/GBP trades at 0.8121 from 0.8114. Against the Japanese yen, the euro has fallen from 129.26 to 127.26 in trading today while against the Swiss franc, the euro has also declined as the EUR/CHF has fallen from 1.5096 to 1.5006 in trading today.

Today's Chart

EUR/JPY - The European Euro falls against the Japanese Yen today in currency trading a day before the European Central Bank is scheduled to reduce its interest rate up to 50 basis points(Daily Chart).

Today's Forex Chart

tags: euro, retail sales, euro currency trading

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