What EU country saw the biggest increase in retail sales in May 2024?

Luxembourg saw the biggest increase in retail sales by volume in May 2024, reporting a 10.4% increase, new data from Eurostat has found.

Other countries to post a notably high increase in retail sales by volume include Croatia (+8.4%), Romania (+6.5%), Slovakia (+5.3%) and Lithuania (+5.1%).

A number of countries also saw retail sales decrease, with Belgium (-5.2%), Estonia (-4.0%) and Slovenia (-1.1%) posting the largest declines.

No data was available for Germany or Greece.

Across the European Union

Seasonally adjusted retail trade volumes increased by 0.6% in the European Union in May 2024, compared to the same period the previous year, while volumes were up 0.3% in the euro area.

In the EU, the volume of retail trade increased by 0.7% for food, drinks, and tobacco, increased by 0.9% for non-food products (except automotive fuel), and decreased by 0.8% for automotive fuel in specialised stores in May 2024, the Eurostat data showed.

Within the euro area, meanwhile, the volume of retail trade increased by 0.3% for food, drinks, and tobacco, increased by 0.7% for non-food products (except automotive fuel), and decreased by 0.6% for automotive fuel in specialized stores.

On a month-on-month basis, i.e comparing May 2024 with April 2024, retail trade volumes increased by 0.1% in both the euro area and the EU.

Retail trade volumes by EU country, May 2024

Rank	Country	Retail Trade Volume Increase (%)
1	Luxembourg	10.4
2	Croatia	8.4
3	Romania	6.5^p
4	Slovakia	5.3^p
5	Lithuania	5.1^p
6	Czechia	4.5
7	Cyprus	3.8
8	Hungary	3.7^p
9	Portugal	2.7
10	Netherlands	2.3^p
11	Bulgaria	1.6^p
12	Sweden	1.5^p
13	France	1.4^p
14	Latvia	1.0
15	Austria	0.7^p
16	Spain	0.0^p
17	Malta	-0.2^p
18	Denmark	-0.3
19	Ireland	-0.7^p
20	Italy	-0.8
21	Poland	-0.8^p
22	Finland	-0.8
23	Slovenia	-1.1^p
24	Estonia	-4.0
25	Belgium	-5.2^p
26	Germany	:
27	Greece	:^c