Retail trade volume down in March 2006

04 May '06

2 min read

EUROSTAT released the Volume of retail trade of March 2006. It stated that the trade down by 0.2 percent in euro-zone Up by 0.7 percent in EU25.

In March 2006, compared to March 2005, the volume of retail trade1 fell by 0.2 percent in the euro-zone2 and rose by 0.7 percent in the EU25. Compared to February 20063, the retail sales index dropped by 0.8 percent in the euro-zone and by 0.3 percent in the EU25.

Annual changes
In March 2006, compared to March 2005, retail trade of “food, drinks and tobacco” fell by 0.9 percent in the euro-zone but gained 0.2 percent in the EU25. The non food sector increased by 0.5 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.

Among the Member States for which data are available, total retail trade rose in Latvia (+16.8 percent), Estonia (+12.6 percent), Lithuania (+10.6 percent), Slovakia (+10.4 percent), Poland (+8.2 percent), Luxembourg (+7.6 percent), Finland (+5.9 percent), Sweden (+5.2 percent), Denmark (+4.2 percent), Cyprus (+2.6 percent), France (+1.6 percent), Spain and the United Kingdom (both +1.2 percent). Falls were recorded in Belgium (-2.7 percent), Portugal (-2.4 percent), Germany (-2.2 percent) and Austria (-1.2 percent).

Monthly changes In March 2006, compared with February 2006, “food, drinks and tobacco” fell by 1.0 percent in the euro-zone and by 0.5 percent in the EU25. The non food sector decreased by 0.5 percent in the euro-zone and remained stable in the EU25.