Good Day fellow Traders,
I am a beginner and I’m educating my self on some fundamentals and have the following question:
Monthly retail sales statistics are announced as a percentage in y/y or m/m.
I want to use the German retail sales from 2 March 2012 as an example for interpretation.
The actual report was -1.6% m/m and +1.6% y/y at the same time.
My question: Is m/m from the previous month and y/y from the previous 12 months?
Thank you all and have an excellent day
I’m not sure how the German government does it specifically but generally, m/m is this month compared to last month and y/y is this month compared to the same month a year ago. The advantage of y/y is that it accounts for seasonal factors. Economic stats come in two forms, nominal and real. Real is inflation-adjusted. The numbers are often revised based on new data.
I think you are answered right for regarding trading strategy… The calculation must be comparison current and previous month/year!