Euro-Zone September retail sales dropped 0.2% m/m, after 0.3% m/m in August. We had been looking for a drop of 1.0% m/m after a slump in German sales and our median was -0.5% m/m, so data were somewhat better than feared, leaving sales up a modest 0.1% q/q in Q3, after a slump of 0.8% q/q in Q2, which suggests that consumption stabilized as energy prices came off in the third quarter. However, consumption still is too weak to compensate for the marked slowdown in investment activity and overall GDP growth is still likely to have contracted in the third quarter, which means the Euro-Zone is in a technical recession. Sales dropped 1.6% y/y, after 1.5% y/y in August, which also highlights the extent of the slowdown.