The fall in month-on-month sales largely reflected a steep sales drop in Germany, which contrasted with strong growth in previous months and was widely linked to January's increase in sales tax. The drop in German sales was the largest for two-and-a-half years (an index of 43.9, down from 55.2 in December). However, sales growth also deteriorated in France, slowing for the third consecutive month to a ten-month low (an index of 50.3, down from 52.4). Modest sales growth was seen in Italy, which represented an improvement on falling sales seen in prior months (the index rose from 46.9 to 50.6), but this was at least in part due to improved car sales resulting from recent government incentives.

The year-on-year growth rate slowed sharply to near-stagnation in January, dropping further from November's three-year survey record high of 57, and from 53.1 in December, to reach a ten-month low of 50.3.

Clothing & footwear and autos both saw sales slip on a year ago, with the auto section seeing the weakest performance.

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