In Poland, the growth of retail sales accelerated and the decline in production in the construction industry slowed down in July on an annual basis

In real terms, retail sales grew by 4.4 percent year-on-year and 1.9 percent month-on-month in July, after June’s 4.1 percent year-on-year growth and 0.3 percent month-on-month expansion.

Analysts polled by the Polish news agency PAP expected a larger, 5.5 percent annual and 2.8 percent monthly increase in retail sales for July.

Also on Thursday, the statistical office announced that in July the annual decline in Polish construction production slowed to 1.4 percent from the 8.9 percent decline in June. Analysts had expected a larger, 2.1 percent year-on-year decline for last month. In July, construction industry production increased by 0.9 percent compared to June, when a 5 percent expansion was recorded. Experts expected that construction production growth would slow down to 0.2 percent on a monthly basis in July.