Data from Eurostat showed that retail sales increased by 0.5% in September after an increase of 1.1% in August (revised from +0.2%). Economists also expected a 0.5% increase. In annual terms, retail sales rose by 2.9% (the largest increase since April 2022), accelerating compared to August (+2.4%, revised from +0.8%). Consensus estimates suggested an increase of 1.3%. As for the EU countries, retail sales increased by 0.3% on a monthly basis and by 2.8% compared to September 2023.
The data showed that in the eurozone, compared with August, the volume of retail trade decreased for food, drinks, tobacco (-0.4%), but increased for non-food products, except automotive fuel (+1.1%) and for automotive fuel in specialized stores (+0.2%).
Compared with September 2023, the volume of retail trade in the eurozone increased for food, drinks, tobacco (+0.2%), non-food products, except automotive fuel (+5.3%) and for automotive fuel in specialized stores (+2.2%).
As for the EU countries, the highest annual increases in the total retail trade volume were recorded in Luxembourg (+13.1%), Romania (+10.3%) and Croatia (+7.1%). The largest decreases were observed in Estonia (-4.4%), Poland and Slovenia (both -3.0%) and Finland (-2.1%).