India, July 7 -- Euro area retail sales decreased for the first time in five months and services production declined in May, suggesting a slowdown in the second quarter.
Retail sales logged a monthly fall of 0.7 percent in May, reversing April's 0.3 percent increase, Eurostat reported Monday. Sales were expected to drop 0.8 percent.
Another data from Eurostat showed that services production decreased 0.3 percent from April, when output was up 0.8 percent.
Retail sales of food, drinks and tobacco declined 0.7 percent and that of non-food products slid 0.6 percent. At the same time, automotive fuel in specialized stores fell 1.3 percent.
Year-on-year, retail sales growth eased to 1.8 percent in May from 2.7 percent in the prior month.
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