Retail sales, including food, fall in Italy

IMG title=”” alt=”” src=”http://www.mineralfossil.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/wpid-b0d2f517df173f49b6ea7c388a152bbf.jpg” IMG class=hide alt=”Retail sales, including food, fall in Italy” src=”http://www.mineralfossil.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/wpid-b0d2f517df173f49b6ea7c388a152bbf.jpg” (ANSA) – Rome, December 20 – Retail sales, including shopping for food, fell in October by 1.6% compared with the same time last year, national statistical agency Istat reported Friday. PIt also found that retail sales in October fell by 0.1% compared with the month before./PPFood sales fell by 0.2% between September and October, and dropped by 0.6% compared with October 2012./PPIstat also reported sales slipped by 3.6% for books, stationery, and newspapers during October compared with the same month last year; while sales of furniture fell by 3% on an annualized basis, and footwear by 2.6%./PPThe report comes as government officials have been expressing optimism that Italy is finally pulling out of its deepest recession since the Second World War./PPGross domestic product (GDP) was flat in the third quarter of this year after eight consecutive months of losses, leading to forecasts of modest growth to come in 2014./PIMG id=mediaViewer title=”” alt=”” src=”http://www.mineralfossil.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/wpid-trasp263.gif”ALL RIGHTS RESERVED