BERLIN: German retail sales, a closely watched measure of household confidence, bounced back strongly in April after falling the previous month, official data released Friday showed.
Retailers' sales in Europe's top economy rose 1.7 percent in April on a month-on-month basis, after falling 1.4 percent in March, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement.
It had initially reported a 2.3-percent decline in March but corrected the figure based on more complete data.
Analysts polled by financial services company Factset had expected a smaller rebound of 1.0 percent in what is typically a shaky indicator.
"Germany's notoriously volatile retail sales resumed their sharp uptrend at the beginning of the second quarter," said Christian Schulz, senior economist at Berenberg bank.
Taken as a whole, retail sales for the first four months of 2015 jumped 3.1 percent compared to the same period last year, Destatis said.
The report came on the back of a poll released Wednesday indicating the highest level of consumer confidence in Germany in 13.5 years.
Market research company GfK said strong demand and low inflation were propelling consumers' willingness to spend.
"Consumption growth may slow a little with the oil price recovering a bit in recent months," Schulz said.
"However, the robust labour market, very low inflation and little incentive to save from very low interest rates should support continued household spending rises."
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