The Bloomberg Eurozone Retail Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), based on a mid-month survey of more than 1,000 executives in the region's retail sector that provides data one month ahead of government-issued figures, fell from 47.5 in June to 47.3 in July. By dropping further below the no-change level of 50.0, the seasonally adjusted index pointed to a sharper rate of decline in like-for-like sales, which have now fallen for fourteen successive months. The rate of contraction in July was also faster than the average during the second quarter, but has eased since the first quarter and the survey record pace seen last November.