Retail sales rose in Germany last year, by 2.7% in real terms and by 3.8% in nominal terms, according to preliminary results from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).
This growth rate was 0.3 percentage points higher than previous estimates published at the start of January, Destatis noted.
In the first half of last year, retail sales rose by 3.8% in real terms, compared to the corresponding period a year earlier, while the second half saw sales up 1.7%. The increase in sales in the first half can be attributed to the restructuring of a major online retailer in August 2024, which added previously unrecorded sales figures for Germany.
In food retail, sales were up 1.1% in real terms and 3.4% in nominal terms, while non-food retail saw real sales up 3.7% and nominal sales rise 4.1%.
Christmas sales
Retail sales were also higher during the busy Christmas period, with sales in December 2025 rising 3.2% in real terms and 3.5% in nominal terms compared to the same month the previous year. Adjusted for calendar and seasonal variations, the increase was 1.5% in real terms and 1.7% in nominal terms.
While December sales rose year-on-year, they were still 4.0% below December 2021 – the highest December sales period since records began in 1994.
In December 2025, food retail sales rose by 1.5% in real terms and 1.2% in nominal terms compared with November 2025, while non-food sales declined by 1.2% in real terms and 1.6% in nominal terms. Online and mail-order retail reported a 4.2% drop in real terms and a 4.8% decline in nominal terms compared with the previous month.
‘In the past, preliminary nominal and real results, particularly for December, a month heavily influenced by Christmas business, were usually revised upwards due to corrections in company announcements,’ Destatis noted. Read more here.
