Retail sales in Germany declined slightly in April, German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Friday, revising the data in previous month upwardly.
According to the Wiesbaden-based office, retail sales in the Europe's largest economy, adjusted for calendar, seasonal and inflation variations, was down by 0.9 percent in April compared with that in the previous month.
In unadjusted terms, German retail sales in April was 3.4 percent larger than a year earlier, as Easter fell in April this year, while in March last year.
In the first four months of 2014, sales in retail sector grew by 1.2 percent from the same period of the previous year, Destatis said.
Market research institute GfK forecast that private consumption would grow by 1.5 percent in 2014 as a main pillar for German economy.
Its earlier survey showed that German consumer confidence remained stable at a high level, though external uncertainties, including a slowdown in emerging economies and crisis in Ukraine, still existed.
Destatis has confirmed that German gross domestic product increased by 0.8 percent in the first quarter, leading the recovery of the European economy. The growth was solely contributed by domestic demand, it said./.