German retail sales up slightly in August

FRANKFURT (AFP) - German retailers reported a modest 0.6-percent increase in business in August from July, according to revised data published by the Bundesbank.
The figure represented a downward revision from a preliminary estimate of an increase of 1.1 percent published by the federal statistics office Destatis earlier this month.
Retailers of food, drinks and tobacco and of fashion reported a slight decrease in business in August, while consumer goods retailers saw a rise in sales, the German central bank calculated Friday.
The positive development in sales comes at a time when the German retail sector is in the throes of painful restructuring.
On Thursday, the ailing department store chain KarstadtQuelle announced it was axeing 5,500 jobs or just over five percent of its workforce. And Spar, the country's seven-biggest grocery store chain, said it was cutting a thousand jobs in its wholesale activities.