Swiss Adjusted Real Retail Sales (YoY) (JUL)
Actual: 3.3%
Expected: 5.3%
Previous: 1.0%
The usually volatile retail sales series for Switzerland reported yet another month of positive growth. In the year through July, the total value of reciepts in the sector grew 3.3 percent - below the 5.3 percent expected by economists but well above the eight-month low 1.0 percent clip printed in June. Put into a historical context, the positive trend in spending has been set since May of 2006 - an testament to domestic consumption’s ability to support growth should global expansion cool and demand for Swiss exports wane. Consumers have loosened their purse strings in response to growing wages and confidence that have been spurred by an unemployment rate at five year lows. Looking more closely at the Swiss Statistics Office’s summary product breakdown, most component groups were showing positive changes to sales activity. The only detractors were beverage and tobacco sales which dropped 8 and 3.7 pecent respectively. From the positive contributions, electronic, personal and furniture goods sales were leading the way with 19.1 percent, 10.9 percent and 7.5 percent increases respectively.
In the minutes after the sales report hit the wires the Swiss franc was actually trading modestly lower against the US dollar. USDCHF was up 10 points as it scalled above short-term, intraday resistance seen at 1.1815.