Volume of retail trade up by 0.2% in the euro area and by 0.5% in the EU

Overview

In May 2026, compared with April 2026, the seasonally adjusted retail trade volume increased by 0.2% in the euro area and by 0.5% in the EU, according to first estimates from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In April 2026, retail trade volume fell by 0.3% in the euro area and by 0.6% in the EU.

In May 2026, compared with May 2025, the calendar adjusted retail sales index increased by 1.6% in the euro area and by 1.9% in the EU.

Retail trade volume

Monthly comparison by retail sector and by Member State

In the euro area in May 2026, compared with April 2026, the volume of retail trade

increased for food, drinks, tobacco by 0.6%,
increased for non-food products (except automotive fuel) by 0.1%,
decreased for automotive fuel in specialised stores by 0.5%.

In the EU, the volume of retail trade

increased for food, drinks, tobacco by 0.6%,
increased for non-food products (except automotive fuel) by 0.5%,
decreased for automotive fuel in specialised stores by 0.4%.

Among Member States for which data are available, the highest monthly increases in the total retail trade volume were recorded in Cyprus (+3.7%), Luxembourg (+3.6%) and Poland (+2.4%). The largest decreases were observed in Estonia (-2.2%), Croatia (-2.0%), Belgium and Lithuania (both -0.7%).

Annual comparison by retail sector and by Member State

In the euro area in May 2026, compared with May 2025, the volume of retail trade

increased for food, drinks, tobacco by 2.4%,
increased for non-food products (except automotive fuel) by 2.3%,
decreased for automotive fuel in specialised stores by 4.6%.

In the EU, the volume of retail trade

increased for food, drinks, tobacco by 1.9%,
increased for non-food products (except automotive fuel) by 2.8%,
decreased for automotive fuel in specialised stores by 2.9%.

Among Member States for which data are available, the highest annual increases in the total retail trade volume were recorded in Cyprus (+8.4%), Bulgaria (+7.9%) and Luxembourg (+7.8%). Decreases were observed in Romania (-4.0%), Estonia (-0.5%) and Belgium (-0.4%).

Tables

Volume of retail trade % change compared with the previous month*
	Dec-25	Jan-26	Feb-26	Mar-26	Apr-26	May-26

0.0	0.2	-0.4	0.8	-0.3	0.2
0.3	0.6	-0.4	-0.1	0.8	0.6
-0.3	0.1	-0.4	1.5	-0.6	0.1
0.3	-1.1	0.2	0.9	-3.6	-0.5

0.0	0.2	-0.6	1.2	-0.6	0.5
0.1	0.3	-0.4	0.1	0.5	0.6
-0.3	0.1	-0.5	1.9	-1.0	0.5
0.4	-1.2	0.7	1.6	-3.1	-0.4

Volume of retail trade % change compared with the previous month*
	Dec-25	Jan-26	Feb-26	Mar-26	Apr-26	May-26
0.0	0.2	-0.4	0.8	-0.3	0.2
0.0	0.2	-0.6	1.2	-0.6	0.5
0.8	-0.2	-0.4	3.6	-1.8	-0.7
1.5	-0.4	2.2	1.3	-1.0	0.8
-0.1	1.1	-0.3	1.6	-0.9	c
-2.2	0.2	-0.5	4.3	-4.2	2.0
0.4	0.2	-0.2	0.0	-0.4	1.1
-0.3	4.2	-0.3	0.0	-1.5	-2.2
-0.3	-0.1	0.5	0.8	-0.9	0.5
0.9	0.7	1.3	-0.5	-1.4	c
-1.0	-0.1	0.0	1.1	-1.5	0.6
-0.1	0.6	-1.1	0.7	0.5	-0.3
2.4	-1.3	0.0	0.5	-0.2	-2.0
-0.4	0.3	-0.1	0.4	0.0	-0.3
0.6	-1.2	0.7	0.6	-0.9	3.7
-0.7	3.4	-2.1	-0.2	-0.5	-0.1
0.4	0.2	-2.0	3.6	2.4	-0.7
-0.5	-2.5	-4.0	2.2	-1.2	3.6
0.5	0.5	0.4	1.9	-1.2	0.8
0.7	-0.4	2.3	-1.5	0.9	0.6
-0.8	0.2	-0.1	1.4	-0.4	-0.3
2.2	-0.2	-0.5	0.2	0.0	0.0
0.4	0.4	-2.2	2.9	-1.5	2.4
-1.8	0.7	-0.7	2.6	-0.7	0.3
0.6	-3.2	0.5	2.0	-2.5	1.3
1.2	-1.1	-1.5	5.2	-1.0	-0.3
0.7	-1.4	0.3	2.5	-1.8	0.0
-0.3	1.0	0.1	1.2	0.0	0.4
-2.1	0.7	-1.5	3.5	-0.2	-0.4
-0.9	1.0	-1.3	-0.2	0.1	-2.1
0.9	-0.9	0.0	0.4	0.1	0.6

Volume of retail trade % change compared with the same month of the previous year*
	Dec-25	Jan-26	Feb-26	Mar-26	Apr-26	May-26

2.0	2.1	1.2	2.3	0.9	1.6
1.5	1.8	1.0	0.9	1.2	2.4
2.4	2.8	1.7	3.8	1.7	2.3
1.9	0.7	0.3	1.1	-5.0	-4.6

2.1	2.2	1.1	2.8	0.8	1.9
1.3	1.3	0.6	0.7	0.6	1.9
2.6	2.9	1.6	4.3	1.6	2.8
3.2	1.8	0.6	3.0	-3.2	-2.9

Volume of retail trade % change compared with the same month of the previous year*
	Dec-25	Jan-26	Feb-26	Mar-26	Apr-26	May-26
2.0	2.1	1.2	2.3	0.9	1.6
2.1	2.2	1.1	2.8	0.8	1.9
0.0	0.4	-0.4	1.9	-2.1	-0.4
9.0	4.2	7.3	12.4	7.4	7.9
1.8	5.0	3.7	6.2	1.7	c
3.7	3.2	1.6	6.7	0.7	4.0
2.7	1.3	0.8	0.8	-0.5	1.5
-1.0	8.7	4.9	6.2	1.6	-0.5
-0.6	1.9	-0.1	1.1	-0.1	0.4
4.7	4.1	4.4	3.0	-0.1	c
2.7	3.6	2.1	4.3	0.2	1.1
3.3	3.5	1.6	2.3	1.9	1.9
4.8	3.0	3.1	3.3	2.0	0.5
-0.6	0.7	0.2	2.2	0.8	0.7
9.0	8.9	5.0	6.1	2.7	8.4
1.1	7.1	4.5	4.2	2.5	3.3
2.4	9.1	2.9	6.7	9.8	7.3
3.8	19.2	10.6	6.7	6.9	7.8
3.4	3.6	3.9	8.1	3.6	4.9
5.1	3.8	13.0	3.0	5.4	4.7
0.4	-0.3	0.3	1.6	1.4	1.3
0.4	0.8	-0.2	0.1	-0.3	0.3
4.3	4.2	0.8	7.1	-0.1	3.9
3.9	4.1	2.6	6.2	5.1	3.2
-2.1	-5.2	-7.1	-2.6	-5.8	-4.0
4.0	-0.3	-2.6	6.3	3.3	1.7
-5.0	-2.8	-2.4	5.1	-0.2	1.5
-0.3	3.1	2.5	4.3	3.1	6.0
2.5	3.8	1.9	6.2	4.7	7.7
3.1	4.1	1.6	0.9	0.7	-2.5
2.6	0.2	0.8	1.4	1.8	3.5

Volume of retail trade, calendar and seasonally adjusted indices (base year 2021)
	Dec-25	Jan-26	Feb-26	Mar-26	Apr-26	May-26
103.9	104.1	103.7	104.5	104.2	104.4
104.3	104.5	103.9	105.1	104.5	105.0
92.4	92.2	91.8	95.1	93.4	92.7
125.0	124.5	127.3	128.9	127.6	128.6
100.6	101.7	101.4	103.0	102.1	c
98.5	98.7	98.2	102.4	98.1	100.1
100.8	101.0	100.8	100.8	100.4	101.5
93.5	97.4	97.1	97.1	95.6	93.5
110.2	110.1	110.6	111.5	110.5	111.1
101.5	102.2	103.5	103.0	101.6	c
112.2	112.1	112.1	113.3	111.6	112.3
107.6	108.2	107.0	107.7	108.2	107.9
119.9	118.3	118.3	118.9	118.7	116.3
97.7	98.0	97.9	98.3	98.3	98.0
128.9	127.4	128.3	129.1	127.9	132.6
105.5	109.1	106.8	106.6	106.1	106.0
110.4	110.6	108.4	112.3	115.0	114.2
145.1	141.4	135.7	138.7	137.1	142.1
104.4	104.9	105.3	107.3	106.0	106.8
125.5	125.0	127.9	126.0	127.1	127.8
101.4	101.6	101.5	102.9	102.5	102.2
97.8	97.6	97.1	97.3	97.3	97.3
111.8	112.2	109.7	112.9	111.2	113.9
116.8	117.6	116.8	119.8	119.0	119.3
114.5	110.8	111.4	113.6	110.8	112.2
101.7	100.6	99.1	104.3	103.3	103.0
103.2	101.8	102.1	104.7	102.8	102.8
93.2	94.1	94.2	95.3	95.3	95.7
98.1	98.8	97.3	100.7	100.5	100.1
96.4	97.4	96.1	95.9	96.0	94.0
102.5	101.6	101.6	102.0	102.1	102.7

Volume of retail trade, calendar adjusted indices (base year 2021)
	Dec-25	Jan-26	Feb-26	Mar-26	Apr-26	May-26
121.4	97.7	91.6	103.3	100.8	104.1
121.5	97.3	91.4	104.1	101.5	105.0
108.2	89.6	81.7	94.9	91.6	94.3
142.4	113.6	108.7	126.6	122.3	126.1
124.1	91.8	87.6	102.1	97.8	c
114.8	89.1	84.6	99.7	97.3	106.8
112.7	93.7	90.6	104.1	100.8	102.4
104.9	90.8	85.6	97.6	94.1	95.3
160.8	93.3	101.8	102.6	101.1	107.9
110.0	92.2	98.2	98.9	99.2	c
130.9	109.9	97.5	109.6	105.7	110.5
130.4	104.2	94.0	105.3	105.0	106.1
124.8	96.0	93.9	109.9	114.2	117.0
118.5	91.6	86.1	94.5	89.0	97.5
157.9	114.1	111.6	122.6	122.1	131.1
119.2	99.2	91.2	104.1	101.3	105.8
124.8	100.8	92.0	109.2	114.5	118.4
156.4	139.7	137.1	148.3	140.2	143.0
122.1	92.4	91.3	107.2	104.4	106.7
142.9	109.0	110.5	117.9	120.1	128.4
111.7	96.7	88.9	103.1	101.0	106.1
112.5	89.4	87.2	98.8	98.5	95.8
128.3	102.6	95.7	118.2	112.2	114.2
139.8	107.6	99.9	113.6	111.0	117.8
126.9	97.7	94.5	110.6	109.8	111.9
112.0	91.7	86.0	107.3	103.4	102.9
119.1	89.5	89.6	105.8	100.6	103.5
107.0	82.3	78.8	91.8	93.4	100.1
109.7	87.2	81.6	99.1	100.7	106.2
112.3	88.7	80.8	91.5	92.1	100.2
123.9	95.4	90.1	102.7	98.2	104.7

Notes for users

Revisions and timetable

Compared with the data issued in the News Release of 4 June 2026, the monthly percentage change for April 2026 has been revised from -0.4% to -0.3% in the euro area and from -0.5% to -0.6% in the EU. The annual percentage change has been revised from +1.0% to +0.9% in the euro area and from +0.9% to +0.8% in the EU.

Methods and definitions

The index of the volume of retail trade measures the evolution of the turnover in retail trade, adjusted for price changes (deflated), i.e. the evolution of the total amount of goods sold, based on data adjusted for calendar and seasonal effects.

Seasonally adjusted euro area and EU series are calculated by aggregating the seasonally adjusted national data.

Geographical information

Euro area (EA21): Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The European Union (EU27) includes Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.