Spain is the country that suffered the largest monthly drop in retail sales in March, with a drop of 4%. In the euro zone as a whole, the contraction was 0.4% compared to the previous month, when it had increased by 0.4 percentage points. At the same time, in the EU as a whole, it fell by 0.2%, after increasing by 0.3% in February.
Data released today by Eurostat also show that in the Eurozone retail trade volume fell by 2.9% for fuels compared to the previous month and by 1.2% for non-food products. It increased by 0.8% for food, beverages and tobacco.
In the EU, retail trade volume decreased by 3.0% for fuels and by 0.7% for non-food products; however, it increased by 0.6% for food, beverages and tobacco.
These figures reflect that, in the face of inflationary pressures in recent months – accentuated by the war in Ukraine since the end of February – consumers have reduced their spending and that only trade in foodstuffs has increased.
In this context, Spain is the country where retail sales fell the most, contracting by 4%. It was followed by Luxembourg (-3.3%) and France (-1.9%) with the largest monthly declines in retail sales, according to available data.
On the other hand, the largest increases compared to February were observed in Slovenia (+11.4%), Latvia (+11.1%) and Hungary (+7.3%).
