Retail in Europe has off month in June

Retail sales slipped 0.5 percent month to month in June in the eurozone and 0.3 percent in the European Union, the data office Eurostat said Monday. From June 2012, retail sales dropped 0.9 percent in the 17-member currency union. Sales rose a marginal 0.1 percent in the European Union from June 2012. The EU is a 28-member region that included 27 members in June, as Croatia joined on July 1. Data was also unavailable from the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and the Netherlands. Among reporting countries, the largest increases month to month were posted by Malta at 1.8 percent, Luxembourg at 1.3 percent and Denmark at 1.2 percent. The largest declines among reporting countries were in Hungary, Austria and Germany with declines of 1.9 percent, 1.7 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.