German retail sales in surprise drop in July

German retail sales fell unexpectedly in July, dropping 1.4 percent from a month earlier, provisional adjusted figures by the federal statistics office Destatis showed on Friday. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a 0.7 percent rise. Adjusted for calendar effects, the retail sales figure for June has been revised upwards, to a drop of 0.8 percent compared with the previous month from an initial estimate of a fall of 1.5 percent. On a 12-month basis, July retail sales grew 2.3 percent, partly helped by an extra day of commerce compared with 2012, Destatis said, as well as higher sales in the food, drink and tabacco sectors, where sales grew by 5.0 percent. Non-food sales also rose slightly from a year ago, up 0.2 percent. Between January and July, retail sales shrank 0.1 percent compared with the same period last year.