According to the report from Istat, in December 2018, both value and volume of retail trade contracted by 0.7% when compared with the previous month.

Year-on-year growth rate fell by 0.6% in value terms, while the quantity sold decreased by 0.5%

In the three months to December, the value of retail trade rose by 0.1%, showing a slowdown to growth in comparison with the previous quarter (+0.4%), while the volume remained unchanged at +0.3%.

Looking at the value of sales by product category, in December 2018 Other products increased sales by 2.9%, followed by Furniture and textile items with a growth of 1.9%. The biggest decline in retail trade was reported for Pharmaceutical products (-3.3%) and Sporting equipment, games and toys (-2.7%).

For the whole of 2018, the value of retail trade increased by 0.2%, remaining relatively flat compared with a year ago.