Berlin - European retail sales posted a surprise increase in June, data released Wednesday showed, as a result helping to give the euro renewed strength on currency markets.
The European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, said retail sales in the 17-member eurozone jumped by 0.9 per cent month-on-month in June. Analysts had forecast a 0.5-per-cent increase.
The figures helped to offset the series of negative factors that have hit the euro in recent days, as investors fret about Italy and Spain possibly falling victim to the eurozone's debt crisis.
By late morning the euro was trading up more than 1 per cent, which pushed the currency above the 1.43-dollar mark.
However, Eurostat also revised down the May retail sales data to show a fall of 1.3 per cent compared with a previously estimated 1.1-per-cent drop.
