In February 2021, the volume of retail trade in the EU dropped by 2.2% compared to February 2020. In January it was down 4.5%.
The euro area, too, saw a year-on-year drop in the volume of retail trade of 2.9%, after a 5.2% drop in January.
In both the EU and the euro area the volume of retail trade dropped the most for automotive fuels, by 11.9% and 13% respectively.
The volume of retail trade for non-food products dropped significantly as well, by 4% in the EU and by 5.5% in the euro area, the exception being the volume of trade for mail and internet orders, which jumped by 37.9% in the EU and by 37.3% in the euro area.
In February Europeans bought more only food, drinks and tobacco products, as evidenced by a year-on-year increase of the volume of retail trade of 1.8% in the EU and 1.9% in the euro area.
Belgium, Austria, Croatia report highest increases
Among the countries whose statistics were available to Eurostat, Portugal saw the biggest year-on-year drop in the volume of retail trade, of 15.4%.
It was followed by Slovakia and Malta with declines of 14.7% and 8.9% respectively.
The biggest year-on-year increase in the volume of retail trade was reported by Belgium, of 11%, followed by Austria, with an increase of 5.2% and Croatia, an increase of 5.1%.
In January 2021 Croatia saw a year-on-year 0.9% increase in the volume of retail trade.
Signs of recovery
The seasonally-adjusted volume of retail trade in the EU grew in February by 2.9% compared to January, when it dropped by 4.6%.
In the euro area it went up by 3% from January, when it dropped by 5.2%.
The volume of retail trade for non-food products grew the most in both the EU and the euro area, by 6.2% and 6.8% respectively, after it went down at the start of the year.
The volume of retail trade for automotive fuels recovered as well, by 2.4% in the EU and 3.7% in the euro area.
The volume of retail trade dropped on the month only for food and tobacco products and drinks, by 0.8% in the EU and 1.1% in the euro area.
Among the countries whose statistics were available to Eurostat, the biggest monthly increase in the volume of retail trade was reported by Austria, of 28.2%.
It was followed by Slovenia and Italy, with a 16.4% and an 8.4% increase in the volume of retail trade.
In Croatia the volume of retail trade in February grew 4.4% from January, when it rose by 3.4%.
Monthly drops in the volume of retail trade were reported by Malta (-1.5%), France (-1.2%), Hungary (-1.2%), Portugal (-0.7) and Finland (-0.4).
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