Data from Eurostat showed that retail sales decreased by 0.7% in May, as expected, after increasing by 0.3% in April (revised from +0.1%). This was the sharpest drop since August 2023. In annual terms, retail sales growth slowed to 1.8% from 2.7% in April (revised from +2.3%). Consensus estimates suggested an increase of 1.2%. As for the EU countries, retail sales fell by 0.8% on a monthly basis and rose by 1.9% compared to May 2024.
The report showed that in the eurozone, compared with April, the volume of retail trade decreased for food, drinks, tobacco (-0.7%), non-food products except automotive fuel (-0.6%) and for automotive fuel in specialized (-1.3%).
Compared with May 2024, the volume of retail trade increased for food, drinks, tobacco (+0.5%), non-food products except automotive fuel (+2.4%) and for automotive fuel in specialized stores (+2.8%).
As for the EU countries, the highest annual increases in the total retail trade volume were recorded in Cyprus (+7.9%), Bulgaria (+7.2%) and Luxembourg (+6.3%). The largest decreases were observed in Finland (-2.2%), Latvia (-1.9%) and Sweden (-1.8%).