MADRID, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Spanish retail sales fell 8 percent during October, a key shopping month in the run up to Christmas, marking the largest drop since June and the 11th straight month of declining sales as Spain heads into recession.
A 7.6 percent fall in sales of clothes and accessories compared with the same month a year earlier was more than triple the previous month's rate of decline as heavy discounting proved ineffective among shoppers spooked by job cuts, analysts said.
"People are not spending: it's supposed to be one of the busiest times of the year, but if people are really, really concerned about losing their jobs they're only going to spend on the essentials," said Jose Garcia Zarate at the 4Cast consultancy.
October was the worst retail month, in calendar-adjusted terms, since sales fell 8.1 percent in June, the National Statistics Institute data showed on Thursday.
Spanish consumer confidence ticked up slightly in October after interest rates cuts, but remained near a record low as unemployment rose faster in Spain than any large European country.
Spain's economy, the fourth largest in the euro zone, contracted for the first time in 15 years during the third quarter and the government sees the risk of a recession dragging into 2009.
The country's Socialist government, which has already announced more than 40 billion euros ($51.68 billion) in tax breaks and state credit this year, was due to announce further economic stimulus on Thursday afternoon in line with a Europe-wide drive to ease the crisis.
(Additional reporting by Manuel Maria Ruiz and Paul Day; Reporting by Andrew Hay; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)