The retail in sector in Portugal experienced a 6.1% year-on-year contraction in August, softening the 7.7% fall in July, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported Friday.

Broken down into food and non-food products, August saw annualised falls of 1.5% and 10.5% and an improvement on July’s figures of 3.3% and 0.1% respectively.

Whilst wholesale turnover registered a rise of 2.9% in the month, the rest of the figures reflect the general state of the economy.

Employment, the number of hours worked and remunerations throughout the retail sector were down year-on-year by 5.6%, 5.9% and 4.6% in August although all three figures reflect mild improvements on the situation in July.

Meanwhile, the industrial output index turned in a 2.2% fall in August and again representing an improvement compared with July when output dropped 4.1% in annualised terms.