• Prior +1.8%

Death, taxes, and German retail sales underperforming. Once again, this marks another disappointing reading as the drag was mostly down to food sales in April. That fell by 3.4% in nominal terms while non-food retail sales rose by 0.2% on the month. As much as there has been optimism surrounding the German economy to start the year, this is still a bit of a sluggish spot amid higher prices.