Growth was driven to a large extent by a marked expansion in Germany. The increase in France, meanwhile, was only fractional and sales in Italy continued to fall.

The headline IHS Markit Eurozone Retail PMI - which tracks the month-on-month changes in like-forlike retail sales in the bloc‟s biggest three economies combined - fell to 50.8 in August, from 51.0 in July. The latest reading highlighted the weakest rate of growth in the current five-month period of expansion.

Sales remained down on an annual basis. By country, yearly sales were up in Germany, but lower in France and Italy. The degree of the shortfall was particularly marked in the former.