The Bloomberg Eurozone Retail Purchasing Managers' Index ("PMI(R)"), an indicator based on a mid-month survey of economic conditions in the euro area retail sector and providing data one month ahead of government issued figures, rose back above the 50.0 no-change mark in August to 51.0, indicating growth of Eurozone retail sales. Though only modest, the expansion in August was a considerable improvement on July's marked contraction (as signaled by a thirty-eight month index low of 46.2) and represented the first increase in sales in four months.