Data from Eurostat showed that retail sales increased by 0.2% in August after remaining unchanged in July (revised from +0.1%). Economists also expected a 0.2% increase. In annual terms, retail sales rose by 0.8% (the largest increase since May 2022), offsetting the July decline (-0.1%). Consensus estimates suggested an increase of 1.0%. As for the EU countries, retail sales increased by 0.3% on a monthly basis and by 1.0% compared to August 2023.
The data showed that in the eurozone, compared with July, the volume of retail trade increased for food, drinks, tobacco (+0.2%), non-food products, except automotive fuel (+0.3%) and for automotive fuel in specialized stores (+1.1%).
Compared with August 2023, the volume of retail trade in the eurozone decreased for food, drinks, tobacco (-0.2%), but increased for non-food products, except automotive fuel (+1.4%) and automotive fuel in specialized stores (+2.5%%).
As for the EU countries, the highest annual increases in the total retail trade volume were recorded in Luxembourg (+17.3%), Romania (+8.9%), Croatia and Cyprus (both +5.7%). The largest decreases were observed in Estonia (-2.7%), Belgium (-1.7%), Denmark and Ireland (both -1.6%).