German retail sales fell unexpectedly in November, data showed on Wednesday, despite hopes for a boost from pre-Christmas promotions like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Retail sales declined by 0.6% in real terms compared with the previous month,

Shoppers spent more in December compared with the year before but it wasn't enough to make up for an overall lacklustre year for retailers, new figures suggest. Doing particularly well over Christmas were gifts including beauty advent calendars, jewellery and AI-enabled tech, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said.

Retail sales in December inch up due to the late Black Friday trading period, but the BRC warns of possible falling sales in 2025.

Retail sales in Germany increased 2.50% in November over the same month in the previous year. Retail sales decreased 0.60% in November over the previous month. Factory orders decreased 5.40% in November over the previous month.

UK total retail sales saw a 3.2% year on year (YoY) growth in December 2024, surpassing the growth of 1.9% recorded in December 2023, data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG revealed. For the entire year of 2024,