Data from Eurostat showed that retail sales increased by 0.3% in February after remaining unchanged in January (revised from -0.3%). Economists expected a 0.5% increase. In annual terms, retail sales growth accelerated to 2.3% from 1.8% in January (revised from +1.5%). This was the strongest growth since October 2024. Consensus estimates suggested an increase of 1.8%. As for the EU countries, retail sales increased by 0.2% on a monthly basis and by 2.0% compared to February 2024.
The report showed that in the eurozone, compared with January, the volume of retail trade increased for food, drinks, tobacco (+0.3%), non-food products, except automotive fuel (+0.3%) and for automotive fuel in specialized stores (+0.2%).
Compared with February 2024, the volume of retail trade in the eurozone increased for automotive fuel in specialized stores (+0.7%), food, drinks, tobacco (+1.9%) and for non-food products, except automotive fuel (+2.5%).
As for the EU countries, the highest annual increases in the total retail trade volume were recorded in Luxembourg (+10.3%), Cyprus (+8.5%) and Estonia (+5.2%). The largest decreases were observed in Poland (-1.5%), Slovakia (-1.4%) and the Netherlands (-1.2%).