Europe's retail sales are surging at the fastest pace in 10 years
Sales rose 3.7% in the year to January, against the 1.9% economists expected, proving for all who were in doubt that there is genuinely something happening in Europe's economy, after years of stagnation.
Sales actually rose 1.1% in January alone, from December.
That figure was helped upwards by Germany's astonishing surge in retail sales, which rose 5.3% year-on-year in January. Remember, just a few months ago people were seriously worrying about German domestic demand, and whether Europe's powerhouse economy might fall into recession.
Here's how the retail trade figures look in context. It's clear there's still a long way to go for Europe, but there's an obvious and whopping uptick:
Walter Kurtz at Sober Look sketches out the other reasons to be positive: Private lending is now improving, consumer confidence is still climbing, unemployment seems to be falling and the European Central Bank's bigger-than-expected QE programme begins this month to ensure the upswing is supported.
Services PMI figures were out early Wednesday, following manufacturing, and giving a good idea of the strength of Europe's budding recovery as 2015 gets underway.
- Spain services PMI: 56.2 (56.7 expected, 56.7 in January)
- Italy services PMI: 50 (51.4 expected, 51.2 in January)
- France services PMI: 53.4 (53.4 expected, 49.4 in January)
- Germany services PMI: 54.7 (55.5 expected, 54 in January)
- Eurozone whole-economy PMI: 53.3 (53.5 expected, 52.6 in January)
That whole-economy eurozone figure is the best since July 2014. Germany, Italy and Spain all came in a little lower than expected, but none of the big four countries is in recession territory any more, and the French figure is a massive improvement.