Euro zone Feb retail sales up as expected from year earlier

Euro zone retail sales rose from a year earlier as expected in February, data showed on Wednesday, thanks to higher demand for non-food products and automotive fuel.

The European Union's statistics office Eurostat said retail sales in the 19 countries sharing the euro slipped 0.2 percent month-on-month for a 3.0 percent year-on-year gain, exactly in line with economists polled by Reuters.

Retail sales are a proxy for consumer demand, an important component of euro zone gross domestic product which is expected to grow 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of 2015, up from 0.2 percent in the final quarter of 2014.

Eurostat said sales of non-food products rose 4.3 percent year-on-year in February, from 4.2 percent in January while sales of fuel for cars rose 4.2 percent in annual terms, from a 3.1 percent increase in January.