In July 2020, retail trade in the European Union and the euro area decreased on the month, following a spike in June, with Croatia seeing similar trends, according to estimates released by Eurostat on Thursday.
The seasonally-adjusted volume of retail trade fell by 0.8% in the European Union in July compared to June, when it jumped 5.1%, according to revised data.
In the euro area, retail trade fell by 1.3% on the month, after an increase of 5.3% in June.
In May, many EU countries started easing their measures for curbing the spread of the coronavirus, which resulted in shoppers flocking to stores. The shopping frenzy eased in June and then subsided in July, Eurostat data show.
Retail trade in non-food products dropped by 2.3% in the EU and by 2.9% in the euro area. In June it rose by 10.4% in the EU and by 11.8% in the euro area.
The volume of retail trade in textiles, clothing and footwear saw the biggest slump, of 8.7% in the EU and 10.6% in the euro area, after soaring by over a third in June. Retail sales by Internet or by mail order houses also fell sharply, by 6.7% in the EU and by 7.7% in the euro area.
An exception was retail trade in automotive fuels, which saw an increase of 4.6% in the EU and of 4.3% in the euro area. However, the increase was much milder than the jump of 16.6% in the EU and of 19.3% in the euro area in June.
In Croatia, the seasonally-adjusted volume of retail trade decreased by 1.1% in July, compared to June, when it rose by 4.5%.
Belgium recorded the biggest monthly drop in retail sales (-5.1%), followed by Finland (-2%) and Estonia (-1.5%). The highest increases were registered in Portugal (+3.9%), Romania (+3.9%) and Malta (3.2%).
Data for the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy and Cyprus were marked as confidential.
Retail trade sees mild growth on the year
On the year, retail trade in July grew by 0.7% in the EU and by 0.4% in the euro area, after an increase of 1.3% in June.
In Croatia, the volume of retail trade in July declined by 5% on the year, after a drop of 4.9% in June.
