Data from Eurostat showed that retail sales fell by 1.1% in December, offsetting the November increase (+0.3%, revised from -0.3%). Economists had expected a decrease of 1.0%. In annual terms, retail sales fell by 0.8%, accelerating compared to November (-0.4%, revised from -1.1%). Consensus estimates suggested a 0.9% drop. As for the EU countries, retail sales fell by 1.0% on a monthly basis and by 0.7% compared to December 2022. The annual average level of retail trade for the year 2023, compared with 2022, decreased by 1.8% in both the eurozone and the EU. The retail downturn comes despite lower inflation, suggesting that shoppers remain wary of spending money amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis that has put pressure on household spending over the past year.
The data showed that in the eurozone the volume of retail trade decreased by 1.6% for food, drinks and tobacco, by 1.0% for non-food products and by 0.5% for automotive fuels. In the EU, the volume of retail trade decreased by 1.8% for food, drinks and tobacco and by 1.1% for non-food products, while it remained unchanged for automotive fuels.
The annual drop in retail sales in the eurozone was caused by a decline in trade in automotive fuels (-6.2%), food, drinks and tobacco products (-1.0%). Meanwhile, sales of non-food products increased by 0.1%.
As for the EU countries, the largest yearly decreases in the total retail trade volume were registered in Slovenia (-15.0%), Estonia (-4.2%) and Slovakia (-3.8%). The highest increases were observed in Croatia (+8.9%), Cyprus (+3.8%) and Spain (+3.4%).