Figures released by Eurostat registered a 0.2% increase in the volume of retail trade within the euro zone over the month of May when compared to the previous month. Across the month of April, retail trade increased by 0.7% in the euro zone and 0.6% within the 28 EU member states.
When compared to April 2014, the euro area achieved an increase of 0.2% whilst the EU28 increased their volume of retail trade by 0.3%.
Poland and Estonia registered the largest increases of 1.5% and 1.4% respectively in May when compared to April, whilst Ireland, Denmark and Lithuania experienced the greatest decreases of -2.5%, -1.4% and -1.2% respectively. Malta performed very well and achieved the third largest increase in retail trade of 1.1%.
When the figures were compared to those of May 2014, the retail sales index appears to have experienced an overall decline of 2.4% across the euro zone and 3% across all the 28 EU member states.
Further about the 0.2% increase in retail trade recorded across the euro zone for the month of May, this is accounted for with a 0.4% rise in the 'food, drinks and tobacco' section and 'non-food products' section and a decline of 0.7% for automotive fuel.
For the EU28, the 0.3% increase over the month of April that was registered in May is due to a 0.4% increase in 'Food, drinks and tobacco', a 0.3% increase for non-food products and a decrease of -0.6% for automotive products.
Looking at the annual comparison of retail sectors and member states, the 2.4% increase in the volume of retail trade within the euro area registered for May 2015 when compared to May 2014, is due to rises of 3.4% for 'non-food products', 1.7% for 'food, drinks and tobacco' and 0.7% in automotive fuel.
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