Volume of retail trade up by 0.1% in both the euro area and the EU

Overview

In May 2024, compared with April 2024, the seasonally adjusted retail trade volume increased by 0.1% in both the euro area and the EU, according to first estimates from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

In April 2024, retail trade volume fell by 0.2% in both the euro area and the EU.

In May 2024, compared with May 2023, the calendar adjusted retail sales index increased by 0.3% the euro area and by 0.6% in the EU.

Retail trade volume

Monthly comparison by retail sector and by Member State

In the euro area in May 2024, compared with April 2024, the volume of retail trade

increased for food, drinks, tobacco by 0.7%,
decreased for non-food products (except automotive fuel) by 0.2%,
increased for automotive fuel in specialised stores by 0.4%.

In the EU, the volume of retail trade

increased for food, drinks, tobacco by 1.2%,
decreased for non-food products (except automotive fuel) by 0.4%,
remained stable for automotive fuel in specialised stores.

Among Member States for which data are available, the highest monthly increases in the total retail trade volume were recorded in Denmark (+2.3%), Lithuania (+1.8%) and Luxembourg (+1.7%). The largest decreases were observed in Slovakia (-1.0%), Ireland (-0.9%), Bulgaria and Malta (both -0.8%).

Annual comparison by retail sector and by Member State

In the euro area in May 2024, compared with May 2023, the volume of retail trade

increased for food, drinks, tobacco by 0.3%,
increased for non-food products (except automotive fuel) by 0.7%,
decreased for automotive fuel in specialised stores by 0.6%.

In the EU, the volume of retail trade

increased for food, drinks, tobacco by 0.7%,
increased for non-food products (except automotive fuel) by 0.9%,
decreased for automotive fuel in specialised stores by 0.8%.

Among Member States for which data are available, the highest annual increases in the total retail trade volume were recorded in Luxembourg (+10.4%), Croatia (+8.4%) and Romania (+6.5%). The largest decreases were observed in Belgium (-5.2%), Estonia (-4.0%) and Slovenia (-1.1%).

Tables

Volume of retail trade % change compared with the previous month*
	Dec-23	Jan-24	Feb-24	Mar-24	Apr-24	May-24
Euro area
Total retail trade	-0.5	0.0	-0.1	0.7	-0.2	0.1
Food, drinks, tobacco	-0.6	0.3	-0.3	1.1	-0.9	0.7
Non-food products (except automotive fuel)	-0.6	0.3	0.4	0.0	0.5	-0.2
Automotive fuel in specialised stores	0.4	0.5	-1.0	0.8	-0.7	0.4
EU
Total retail trade	-0.5	0.3	0.0	0.5	-0.2	0.1
Food, drinks, tobacco	-0.4	0.4	-0.2	0.8	-1.1	1.2
Non-food products (except automotive fuel)	-0.7	0.4	0.5	-0.1	0.6	-0.4
Automotive fuel in specialised stores	0.7	0.2	0.1	0.3	-0.7	0.0
* Calendar and seasonally adjusted Source dataset: sts_trtu_m

Volume of retail trade % change compared with the previous month*
	Dec-23	Jan-24	Feb-24	Mar-24	Apr-24	May-24
Euro area	-0.5	0.0	-0.1	0.7	-0.2	0.1
EU	-0.5	0.3	0.0	0.5	-0.2	0.1
Belgium	-1.9	-0.7	-2.0	0.5	-0.5	0.4
Bulgaria	-0.7	0.8	0.4	0.1	1.3	-0.8
Czechia	0.2	1.4	-0.3	1.3	-0.1	c
Denmark	-0.3	-1.6	1.3	0.0	-2.9	2.3
Germany	-0.2	-0.3	-1.5	2.7	-0.2	:
Estonia	0.2	-2.4	1.1	0.4	-1.1	-0.6
Ireland	1.2	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.7	-0.9
Greece	2.2	-6.3	0.5	6.3	-5.8	c
Spain	-0.8	-0.5	0.6	-0.5	0.8	-0.6
France	-0.8	0.8	0.5	-0.2	-0.2	-0.2
Croatia	0.8	0.5	0.8	0.5	0.7	0.6
Italy	-0.6	0.1	0.0	0.1	-0.2	0.1
Cyprus	0.5	1.8	-1.9	2.2	-1.1	1.6
Latvia	1.0	-1.3	0.5	0.8	-2.2	0.3
Lithuania	0.1	0.8	0.8	1.6	-1.3	1.8
Luxembourg	3.2	0.8	3.7	0.2	-4.0	1.7
Hungary	1.5	0.1	-0.3	1.9	-0.9	0.0
Malta	-1.1	0.1	0.8	-1.1	1.3	-0.8
Netherlands	-0.5	1.2	0.7	-0.5	-1.2	0.8
Austria	-1.5	1.0	0.4	-0.7	2.0	-0.7
Poland	-0.8	1.8	0.7	-1.0	-0.9	-0.4
Portugal	0.3	-0.2	0.4	-0.1	2.0	0.3
Romania	-0.4	4.6	-0.3	1.0	0.6	-0.3
Slovenia	-0.3	-1.4	-0.2	2.3	-0.7	-0.4
Slovakia	2.0	-1.3	1.0	-0.6	2.4	-1.0
Finland	-1.0	0.2	0.2	0.8	-1.4	1.2
Sweden	-0.5	0.1	2.7	-2.1	0.6	0.4
Norway	-0.9	0.1	0.2	0.4	0.2	3.2
Switzerland	-0.3	0.8	0.0	-0.2	0.0	0.2
* Calendar and seasonally adjusted : Data not available c Confidential Source dataset: sts_trtu_m

Volume of retail trade % change compared with the same month of the previous year*
	Dec-23	Jan-24	Feb-24	Mar-24	Apr-24	May-24
Euro area
Total retail trade	-0.4	-0.9	-0.3	0.6	0.6	0.3
Food, drinks, tobacco	-0.1	-1.3	-1.2	1.0	-0.3	0.3
Non-food products (except automotive fuel)	-0.2	-0.7	0.7	0.7	1.2	0.7
Automotive fuel in specialised stores	-3.4	0.6	-1.5	-1.0	1.1	-0.6
EU
Total retail trade	-0.5	-0.6	0.2	1.4	0.4	0.6
Food, drinks, tobacco	0.3	-0.7	-0.5	1.3	0.0	0.7
Non-food products (except automotive fuel)	0.0	-0.5	1.1	1.7	0.8	0.9
Automotive fuel in specialised stores	-5.0	-0.5	-1.0	-1.0	0.9	-0.8
* Calendar adjusted Source dataset: sts_trtu_m

Volume of retail trade % change compared with the same month of the previous year*
	Dec-23	Jan-24	Feb-24	Mar-24	Apr-24	May-24
Euro area	-0.4	-0.9	-0.3	0.6	0.6	0.3
EU	-0.5	-0.6	0.2	1.4	0.4	0.6
Belgium	-3.7	-3.8	-6.8	-4.6	-5.8	-5.2
Bulgaria	0.8	-0.1	3.1	0.4	9.8	1.6
Czechia	1.2	3.3	2.5	5.8	5.3	c
Denmark	4.6	0.7	2.1	2.7	-1.7	-0.3
Germany	-0.5	-1.2	-2.3	1.0	0.3	:
Estonia	-4.3	-6.7	-3.5	-2.3	-4.9	-4.0
Ireland	1.5	1.2	1.1	1.5	0.9	-0.7
Greece	0.8	-9.3	-9.5	5.3	-6.3	c
Spain	2.7	0.3	1.8	0.6	0.6	0.0
France	-0.5	0.4	1.5	0.7	2.6	1.4
Croatia	8.5	7.9	9.1	8.9	8.6	8.4
Italy	-2.3	-2.6	-0.6	-1.3	-1.0	-0.8
Cyprus	3.8	6.1	0.6	5.0	1.9	3.8
Latvia	1.6	-1.4	-0.3	2.6	0.4	1.0
Lithuania	3.3	-0.7	2.6	6.2	2.4	5.1
Luxembourg	7.5	10.2	16.5	16.3	9.4	10.4
Hungary	-0.3	0.6	1.7	4.1	3.2	3.7
Malta	-0.3	1.6	4.4	-1.0	4.0	-0.2
Netherlands	0.6	0.9	2.5	3.2	1.5	2.3
Austria	-3.8	-2.1	-1.0	-1.9	1.8	0.7
Poland	-2.7	-1.6	2.2	8.2	-7.3	-0.8
Portugal	0.7	0.2	1.2	0.9	1.8	2.7
Romania	1.5	7.5	7.4	5.7	9.9	6.5
Slovenia	-3.4	-1.9	-4.4	-0.5	0.2	-1.1
Slovakia	-3.3	1.7	4.3	1.3	8.6	5.3
Finland	-1.7	-2.8	-2.3	0.6	-3.6	-0.8
Sweden	-3.0	-3.1	2.4	0.0	0.5	1.5
Norway	-0.2	-1.1	-0.1	0.8	1.0	3.4
Switzerland	0.1	0.1	-0.1	-0.2	2.2	0.4
* Calendar adjusted : Data not available c Confidential Source dataset: sts_trtu_m

Volume of retail trade, calendar and seasonally adjusted indices (base year 2021)
	Dec-23	Jan-24	Feb-24	Mar-24	Apr-24	May-24
Euro area	98.9	98.9	98.8	99.5	99.3	99.4
EU	99.2	99.5	99.5	100.0	99.8	99.9
Belgium	87.0	86.4	84.7	85.1	84.7	85.0
Bulgaria	106.5	107.4	107.8	107.9	109.3	108.4
Czechia	93.3	94.6	94.3	95.5	95.4	c
Denmark	94.3	92.8	94.0	94.0	91.3	93.4
Germany	96.0	95.7	94.3	96.8	96.6	:
Estonia	92.5	90.3	91.3	91.7	90.7	90.2
Ireland	101.8	101.8	101.9	102.0	102.7	101.8
Greece	100.5	94.2	94.7	100.7	94.9	c
Spain	105.2	104.7	105.3	104.8	105.6	105.0
France	101.4	102.2	102.7	102.5	102.3	102.1
Croatia	109.3	109.9	110.8	111.3	112.1	112.8
Italy	97.3	97.4	97.4	97.5	97.3	97.4
Cyprus	111.7	113.7	111.5	114.0	112.8	114.6
Latvia	104.3	102.9	103.4	104.2	101.9	102.2
Lithuania	99.9	100.7	101.5	103.1	101.8	103.6
Luxembourg	111.2	112.1	116.3	116.5	111.8	113.7
Hungary	98.6	98.7	98.4	100.3	99.4	99.4
Malta	112.6	112.7	113.6	112.4	113.9	113.0
Netherlands	99.9	101.1	101.8	101.3	100.1	100.9
Austria	94.1	95.0	95.4	94.7	96.6	95.9
Poland	106.4	108.3	109.1	108.0	107.0	106.6
Portugal	106.9	106.7	107.1	107.0	109.1	109.4
Romania	108.4	113.4	113.1	114.2	114.9	114.5
Slovenia	99.2	97.8	97.6	99.8	99.1	98.7
Slovakia	102.3	101.0	102.0	101.4	103.8	102.8
Finland	91.6	91.8	92.0	92.7	91.4	92.5
Sweden	92.7	92.8	95.3	93.3	93.9	94.3
Norway	92.0	92.1	92.3	92.7	92.9	95.9
Switzerland	98.2	99.0	99.0	98.8	98.8	99.0
: Data not available c Confidential Source dataset: sts_trtu_m

Volume of retail trade, calendar adjusted indices (base year 2021)
	Dec-23	Jan-24	Feb-24	Mar-24	Apr-24	May-24
Euro area	115.5	92.9	87.8	97.9	96.0	99.2
EU	115.5	92.6	88.1	98.6	96.9	100.1
Belgium	102.2	84.0	74.8	84.5	83.2	86.8
Bulgaria	118.5	98.5	96.5	104.3	108.3	106.4
Czechia	114.5	85.1	81.3	92.9	91.0	c
Denmark	108.7	85.4	81.9	92.2	90.8	98.5
Germany	107.3	88.1	85.1	98.5	96.2	:
Estonia	104.7	81.2	77.6	90.8	87.3	93.5
Ireland	137.8	94.3	95.1	93.1	98.0	96.3
Greece	111.0	85.8	89.1	95.7	93.0	c
Spain	122.0	104.1	92.0	101.3	101.3	104.1
France	123.1	97.6	90.8	99.8	99.1	100.0
Croatia	111.8	89.2	88.7	102.6	106.8	113.4
Italy	117.8	91.5	87.1	94.1	88.2	97.4
Cyprus	136.5	102.5	97.0	109.4	109.1	111.9
Latvia	115.5	91.4	87.9	100.8	98.1	104.6
Lithuania	112.2	90.0	87.3	101.1	99.9	107.7
Luxembourg	129.4	108.3	107.8	120.9	107.1	113.1
Hungary	116.9	85.6	85.2	98.3	95.5	99.3
Malta	126.5	101.9	100.1	107.7	110.4	115.5
Netherlands	110.7	95.8	89.2	100.5	98.6	105.0
Austria	108.1	86.8	85.7	96.8	97.5	94.6
Poland	122.3	97.4	96.8	111.7	107.7	107.6
Portugal	128.1	98.0	92.6	102.7	102.2	107.7
Romania	122.1	100.4	97.6	110.6	113.6	114.4
Slovenia	109.6	89.5	85.2	101.3	98.7	97.5
Slovakia	113.5	91.6	93.0	102.9	101.0	103.9
Finland	104.1	80.2	76.9	88.6	88.3	96.8
Sweden	103.0	81.5	80.6	91.1	93.2	100.9
Norway	108.1	82.7	77.7	88.2	87.5	102.8
Switzerland	118.0	92.6	87.9	99.6	95.6	101.5
: Data not available c Confidential Source dataset: sts_trtu_m

Notes for users

Revisions and timetable

Data of previous months have been revised compared to those issued in the News Release of 6 June 2024. The monthly percentage change for April 2024 has been revised from -0.5% to -0.2% in the euro area and from -0.6% to -0.2% in the EU. The annual percentage change has been revised from 0.0% to +0.6% in the euro area and from -0.1% to +0.4% in the EU.

Methods and definitions

The index of the volume of retail trade measures the evolution of the turnover in retail trade, adjusted for price changes (deflated), i.e. the evolution of the total amount of goods sold, based on data adjusted for calendar and seasonal effects.

Seasonally adjusted euro area and EU series are calculated by aggregating the seasonally adjusted national data.

Missing observations from Member States for recent months are estimated for the calculation of the euro area and the EU aggregates.

Starting with reference period January 2024, the base year of the data has been changed to 2021, since 2018 the base year had been 2015. More information on the reasons for and impact of the base year change can be found in the related Statistics Explained article.

Geographical information

The euro area (EA20) includes Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The European Union (EU27) includes Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.