European stock markets rose on Friday, boosted by stronger-than-expected Chinese growth data that overshadowed disappointing retail sales figures from the U.K. At 3:05 a.m. ET (08:05 GMT), Germany's DAX index was up 0.5%, France's CAC 40 was up 0.5% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 1%.
China's economy grew 5.4% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, data released earlier on Friday showed, significantly beating analysts' expectations and marking the fastest growth since the second quarter of 2023. For the full year of 2024, the world's second-largest economy expanded 5.0%, meeting the government's annual growth target of around 5%. China is a major export market for Europe's top companies, and its slowdown has hampered growth this year.
In Europe, U.K. retail sales unexpectedly fell in December, down 0.3% month-on-month in December after a downwardly revised 0.1% expansion in November.
"This was driven by a particularly poor month for food sales, which slumped to their lowest level since 2013, with supermarkets the worst hit," said ONS senior statistician Hannah Finselbach. Elsewhere, the final reading of euro zone consumer inflation for December is due later in the session. (AL)
Source: Investing.com
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