Eurozone retailers registered a decline in like-for-like sales during March, following a broad stagnation in the previous month. The overall decline was driven by a further sharp reduction in Italy, while month-onmonth sales in France fell for the first time since November. On the contrary, retail sales in Germany increased for the fourth consecutive month.

The headline Markit Eurozone Retail PMI - which tracks the month-on-month changes in like-for-like retail sales in the bloc‟s biggest three economies combined - dipped to 49.5 in March, from 49.9 in February, signalled a slight decline in sales.