The data published by Eurostat showed on Thursday that Retail Sales in the euro area contracted by 5.9% on a monthly basis in January. This reading followed December's increase of 1.8% and fell short of the market expectation for a decline of 1.1%. On a yearly basis, Retail Sales fell by 6.4%.

Other data from the euro area revealed that the Unemployment Rate stayed unchanged at 8.1% in January and came in better than analysts' estimate of 8.3%.

Meanwhile, European statistics reported that retail sales in Bulgaria increased by 1.8 % in January compared to the last month of 2020, when they increased by 1.3 %. This represents a slight increase in retail sales for the ninth consecutive month, after the last recorded real collapse in retail sales of 20.1% last March, followed by a 2.0% fall in April - during the first Covid lockdown in 2020.

Better growth in retail across the EU was only reported in Sweden (up 3.5%).

On an annual basis, the decline in retail sales in our country was limited in January to a decrease of 3.9% after a 10.7% decrease in December.

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