Seasonally adjusted retail trade value in Italy fell 0.5% month over month in July, following a 1.9% growth in June, data from the country's National Institute of Statistics showed.
The consensus estimate of economists polled by Econoday was for a 0.4% increase.
In volume terms, retail sales declined by 0.7% on a monthly basis.
On an annual basis, retail trade rose 2.8% in volume terms and 2.6% in value terms in non-seasonally adjusted terms. Sales value of food increased 3.2% year over year. Among non-food items, sales of computers and telecommunications equipment climbed 6.4%.
Online sales jumped 23.2% annually, registering the biggest growth in the year.
