By Maria Martinez

Retail sales in Germany increased in June beating forecasts thanks to the easing of coronavirus-related lockdown restrictions.

Retail sales increased 4.2% on month in June in calendar and seasonally-adjusted terms, data from the country's statistics agency Destatis showed Monday. This increase beats the forecast of 1.8% from economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

On year, German retail sales rose 6.2% in June, the data showed.

Compared with February 2020, the month before restrictions were first imposed in Germany, retail sales were up by 9.1% in June, Destatis said.

Sales of food, drinks and tobacco fell 3.9% in calendar and seasonally-adjusted terms in June compared with May, while sales of nonfood products increased 8.7% on month.

Write to Maria Martinez at maria.martinez@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 02, 2021 03:08 ET (07:08 GMT)

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