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Sweden's retail sales declined for the first time in eight months in December and jobless rate increased, figures from Statistics Sweden showed on Thursday.
Retail sales fell 0.6 percent year-on-year in December, after a 6.7 percent increase in November.
Retail sales in durables decrease 8.9 percent in December and those of consumables, excluding sales at the state-owned chain of liquor stores increased 0.2 percent.
On a monthly basis, retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 4.9 percent in December.
Separate data from the statistical office showed that the unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent in December from 7.7 percent in November.
The number of unemployed persons increased by 121,000 to 450,000 in December compared to previous year.
The number of employed persons were 5.054 million in December.
