Retail trade stabilized in the European Union and the euro zone in July, after posting negative growth rates in the previous month. In Croatia, the decline was considerably smaller, state agency Hina said on Monday citing publicly available data released by Eurostat.

In July 2022, the seasonally adjusted volume of retail trade increased by 0.3 percent in both the EU and the euro zone compared to June 2022. Retail trade increased the most in Germany (+1.9 percent), the Netherlands (+1.7 percent), Luxembourg and Poland (both +1.5 percent). The drops were recorded in Austria (-1.8 percent), Finland (-1.7 percent) and Spain (-1.0 percent).

In Croatia, retail sales fell by 0.5 percent year-on-year compared to previous month. The same monthly declines were observed in Sweden and Lithuania.

In July 2022 compared with July 2021, the calendar-adjusted retail sales index decreased by 0.5 percent in the EU and by 0.9 percent in the euro zone.

The largest year-on-year fall in total retail trade volume was registered in Denmark (-7.7 percent), followed by Luxembourg (-6.3 percent) and Ireland (-5.6 percent). The highest increases were observed in Slovenia (+25.0 percent), Malta (+9.0 percent) and Poland (+7.6 percent).

In Croatia, retail trade inched up by 0.1 percent compared with July 2021, after posting a year-on-year 1.7 percent increase in June 2022.