Data from Eurostat showed that retail sales fell by 0.1% in March after increasing by 0.2% in February (revised from +0.3%). This was the first drop since October 2024. Economists had expected sales to remain unchanged. In annual terms, retail sales growth slowed to 1.5% from 1.9% in February (revised from +2.3%). Consensus estimates suggested an increase of 1.6%. As for the EU countries, retail sales fell by 0.1% on a monthly basis and rose by 1.4% compared to March 2024.
The report showed that in the eurozone, compared with February, the volume of retail trade decreased for food, drinks, tobacco (-0.1%) and for non-food products except automotive fuel (-0.1%), but increased for automotive fuel in specialised stores (+0.4%).
Compared with March 2024, the volume of retail trade increased for food, drinks, tobacco (+0.6%), non-food products except automotive fuel (+2.3%) and for automotive fuel in specialised stores (+0.9%).
As for the EU countries, the highest annual increases in the total retail trade volume were recorded in Luxembourg (+9.4%), Bulgaria (+5.4%) and Cyprus (+5.0%). The largest decreases were observed in Slovakia (-2.9%), Poland (-1.8%) and Italy (-1.4%).