German retail sales posted a surprise 0.2-per-cent fall in August, the nation's statistics office said Friday, despite a rise in consumer confidence and declining unemployment, according to dpa. The consensus among economists was that retail sales in Europe's biggest economy would edge up by 0.3 per cent. Friday's data is likely to raise fresh doubts about household spending in the country helping to offset an expected contraction in export growth this year. The slide in August represented the second consecutive monthly fall and followed a revised 0.4-per-cent drop in July. Year on year, however, retail sales in August rose 2.2 per cent, the statistics office said. In the first eight months of the year, retail sales rose 0.9 per cent compared with the same period of 2009. The release of the latest retail sales data came just one day after the nation's labour office said that unemployment fell for the 15th consecutive month in September. The Nuremberg-based GfK research institute said on Tuesday that its survey of consumer confidence hit a three-year high on the back of falling unemployment and Germany's current strong economic performance. Last month, the nation's retail traders' federation (HDE) raised its 2010 outlook for retail sales, forecasting a rise of 1.5 per cent having previously predicted stagnation.
