Although the regional calendar is today relatively empty, one positive piece of news came from the Czech Republic. The Czech retail sales rose in May by 1.2% in annual terms which is much more than anybody has expected. It seems that the subdued consumer demand, which lately deepened the economic slowdown, is now changing. After the worse than expected GDP growth data from the 1Q2013 this result signals that the consumer demand could add to GDP growth and the situation can thus improve in the second half of this year.