Spain's Retail Sales Fall 4.2%, 38 Consecutive Negative Months

Somewhere along the line the economic situation in Spain will bottom, but there are no real signs yet that a recovery is underway.

Courtesy of El Confidencial, via translation, please consider Retail sales fell by 4.2% and totaling 38 months in negative

Retail trade sales fell by 4.2% in August compared with the same month in 2012, expanding by 2.5 points year July's decline of 1.7%.  The National Statistics Institute (INE) reports  38 months of consecutive annual decreases.

Employment in the retail sector fell by 1.9% in the eighth month of the year, two percentage points less than in July, with declines in all modes of distribution. The largest decreases were scored small chains and department stores, where employment contracted by 4.7% and 3.7%, respectively.

Retail sales fell in August in 15 autonomous communities. The largest annual declines occurred in Castilla y León (-9.2%), Basque Country (-8%) and Aragon (-7.7%), while only Balearics managed to increase its sales, with increases of 3 , 2% and 2.7%, respectively.

Employment in retail trade decreased by 13 communities during the eighth month of 2013, mainly in Madrid (-5.7%), Castilla y Leon (-3.6%) and Murcia (-3.1%). The only the recorded progress Balearic Islands and Valencia, with increases of 1%, 0.9% and 0.7%, respectively, while La Rioja remained unchanged in their occupancy.