Data from Eurostat showed that retail sales fell by 0.5% in February after remaining unchanged in January (revised from +0.1%). Economists had expected a decrease of 0.4%. In annual terms, retail sales fell by 0.7%, slowing compared to January (-0.9%, revised from -1.0%). It was the 17th decline in a row. Consensus estimates suggested a 1.3% drop. As for the EU countries, retail sales fell by 0.4% on a monthly basis and by 0.2% compared to February.
The data showed that in the eurozone, compared with January, the volume of retail trade decreased for food, drinks, tobacco (-0.4%), non-food products, except automotive fuel (-0.2%) and automotive fuel in specialized stores (-1.4%).
In the EU, the volume of retail trade decreased for food, drinks, tobacco (-0.5%), non-food products, except automotive fuel (-0.1%) and automotive fuel in specialized stores (-0.9%).
The annual drop in retail sales in the eurozone was caused by decline in trade in food, drinks and tobacco products (-1.4%), non-food products (-0.1%) and automotive fuel in specialized stores (-1.1%).
As for the EU countries, the largest annual decreases in the total retail trade volume were recorded in Belgium (-6.8%), Slovenia (-5.6%) and Finland (-3.7%). The highest increases were observed in Croatia (+9.2%), Romania (+8.7%) and Luxembourg (+6.9%).