LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Retail sales volume across the euro zone fell 0.6% in February, for a 4% decline from the same month last year, the statistics agency Eurostat reported Monday. Economists had forecast a 0.4% monthly fall and a 2.5% year-on-year decline. Meanwhile, inflation pressures continued to ease at the wholesale level. Eurostat said February producer prices fell 0.5% from January and 1.8% compared to February 2008. Economists had forecast a 0.4% monthly decline and a 1.6% year-on-year drop. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/sto...11-40B6-436F-BB4A-03016886C9AC}&dist=hplatest
The problem is structural. In EU retail distribution cost (and retailers' margin) are higher than US. The same item you buy in US for 1 US$, in EU you buy for 1.25 EUR, when you're lucky. When I was in US I found a lot of excellent italian items at a price lower than in Italy. You cannot only look at macroeconomic variables when people decide using microeconomic knowledge (and a lot of biased perceptions). IMHO, of course.