FRANKFURT, (Reuters) – Eurozone retail sales saw an unexpected fall in September, as Germany, which is the bloc’s largest economy, was underperformed, and non-food sales were also low, Eurostat data showed Friday.

The retail sales in 19 euro-zone countries, which are a measure of consumer demand, declined 0.3% in September, but were higher by 2.5% compared to a year ago, according to the statistics office for the European Union.

Reuters polled economic experts and predicted a 0.3% rise in retail sales monthly, and a 1.5% increase year-on-year.

However, a portion of the month-on-30 miss may have been due to revisions. Retail sales for August are now expected to rise 1%, compared to 0.3% reported earlier.

As energy prices continue to rise and coronavirus infections are rising, supply chain bottlenecks persist, consumer sentiment is likely to increase. PMI data already shows that October’s PMI report showed that the PMI had shown that there was a drop in business growth to 6 months.

Also, high petrol prices will likely reduce household buying power and leave families less money to buy other goods.

Eurostat stated that fuel sales increased 1% in the past month, and food, beverages, and tobacco sales rose 0.7%. Non-food sales fell by 1.5%. This includes a 1.4% drop in Internet sales and mail orders.

The largest economy in the Euro zone, Germany, saw the biggest drop of 2.5% in its retail sales, but Finland and the Netherlands also fell into negative territory.