Germany September retail sales -2.0% vs +0.4% m/m expectedPrior +1.3%; revised to +1.2%Germany September retail sales -2.3% y/yPrior -0.4%; revised to -0.3%Ouch. Death, taxes, and Germany economic data disappointing on expectations. It feels almost inevitable more often than not. That's a big miss on German retail sales with consumption activity softening across the board.Looking at the breakdown, sales at petrol stations were down 3.4%, sales of food products down 1.4%, and non-food retail trade was down 2.4% in September compared to the month before. That is hardly a convincing sign that German households are dealing well with the growing inflation pressure that is tiding over Europe especially in the second half of the year.The only bright spot is that perhaps with the new temporary fuel tax relief, running from October to December, that could prop up petrol station sales. So, we'll wait and see on that.But overall, the decline across broader categories is signaling that the health of the German consumer is not doing well. Households are definitely feeling the pinch of higher price pressures and that is showing up in their spending activity/pattern.As such, that just adds another troubling sign for the ECB as the central bank is in a tight spot to balance between flagging growth conditions and higher inflation across the euro area heading into year-end. Policymakers might still be able to get away with another rate hike in December but if the trend here keeps up, it will be tough to justify further tightening when even the largest economy in Europe might be running into trouble. This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.