Unemployment and poor sales depressing retailers

High unemployment and low sales are depressing the performance of retailers across Europe, leading s...

High unemployment and low sales are depressing the performance of retailers across Europe, leading some managers to hold a zero weighting in the sector. Raj Shant, head of European equities at Newton, is one manager currently without exposure to general retailers in his Newton Continental European fund. Shant maintains that European consumer spending continues to be sluggish, a trend that has held sway since the start of the year. In the near term, European retailers face a range of problems, he says, with the most important being the weakness in consumer end demand, which has ...