Retail sales point to deepening Polish slowdown

Poland’s retail sales and unemployment data proved weaker than expected in June, pointing to a further deterioration of economic fundamentals and reinforcing market expectations that the central bank could soon consider cutting interest rates.

Retail sales rose 6.4 percent year-on-year last month, below the 8.95 percent forecast that was largely underpinned by hopes that Poland’s co-hosting of the Euro soccer cup in June would boost consumption.

Analysts also expected that a strong seasonal rise in job creation, as often reported in the summer months, would also leave less Poles out of work.

“The unemployment data could point to a more serious slowdown of the economy,” said Wojciech Matysiak, economist at Bank Pekao.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/26/poland-sales-idUSL6E8IQ7MQ20120726