Euro area Retail Sales surge by 2% in December vs. 1.6% expected

• Retail Sales in euro area and EU rose sharply in December.
• EUR/USD continues to push lower below 1.2000 despite the strong data.

Retail Sales in the euro area rose by 2% on a monthly basis in December, the data published by the Eurostat showed on Thursday. This reading followed November's contraction of 5.7% and came in better than the market expectation of 1.6%. On a yearly basis, Retail Sales increased by 0.6% in 2020.

Further details of the publication revealed that Retail Sales in the European Union expanded by 1.4% in December.

"In the euro area in December 2020, compared with November 2020, the volume of retail trade increased by 5.1% for automotive fuels, by 1.9% for food, drinks and tobacco and by 1.5% for non-food products," the press release read.

Market reaction

The EUR/USD pair extended its daily slide despite the upbeat data and was last seen losing 0.42% on a daily basis at 1.1984.