The European Union’s statistics office, Eurostat, said on Tuesday that retail sales in the 19 countries sharing the euro were down 1.6 percent month-on-month in December, in line with the average forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.Year-on-year, retail trade rose by 0.8 percent.The monthly decline, which wiped out the 0.8 percent gains of October and November, reinforces the sense of an economy slowing at the close of the year.

Eurostat reported last week that the euro zone economy rose by just 0.2 percent quarter-on-quarter in the final three months of 2018, matching the four year low of the third quarter.Economic sentiment in the zone also fell to a two-year low in January, with the steepest decline among retail managers.In Tuesday’s data, non-food sales fell by 2.7 percent from November, with declines of 2.1 percent for electrical goods and furniture, 2.9 percent for textiles and clothing and 6.1 percent for mail order and internet sales.The steepest fall by far was in Germany, where retail sales declined by 4.3 percent month-on-month. Germany’s statistics office has said the drop was compared to a very strong November, boosted by pre-Christmas shopping and discount days such as Black Friday.In France, the euro zone’s second biggest economy, retail sales fell by just 0.1 percent. In Austria, Ireland and Portugal, retail sales rose.