Retail sales in the European Union and the Eurozone fell in March, but Romania is among the member states with the strongest sales growth, both from one month to the next and on an annual basis, according to the data published on Friday by Eurostat.
According to these data, retail sales decreased by 1.2% in the euro zone and by 1.1% in the European Union, in March 2023 compared to February. The most important reductions in retail sales were recorded in Latvia (minus 2.7%), Germany and Poland (both by minus 2.4%). At the opposite pole, the most important increase in retail sales from one month to another was recorded in Romania (2.9%).
On an annual basis, March 2023 compared to March 2022, retail sales decreased by 3.8% in the euro area and by 4.1% in the European Union. And in this case, Romania is among the countries with the strongest sales growth, thanks to an advance of 7.2%, being surpassed only by Spain, where retail sales increased by 10.8% at an annual rate.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected retail sales in the euro zone to drop 0.1 percent in April from March and down 2.7 percent year-on-year.
Eurostat points out that in March, compared to February, retail sales in the EU were influenced by the decrease, by 1.2%, in the sales of non-food products, beverages and cigarettes, followed by a 1.1% decline in sales of non-food products. In contrast, fuel sales increased by 1% from one month to another.
And at an annual rate, retail sales in the EU were also influenced by the decrease, by 6.6%, in the sales of non-food products, beverages and cigarettes, as well as by the reduction by 3.2% in the sales of non- food. Instead, fuel sales increased by 2.8%.
In the case of Romania, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) previously informed that the volume of turnover in retail trade (except trade in motor vehicles and motorcycles), gross series, in March 2023, compared to the previous month, increased, on overall, with 17.9%. On a series adjusted according to the number of working days and seasonality, trade business increased, as a whole, in March 2023, by 2.9%.
Also, the volume of turnover in retail trade (excluding trade in motor vehicles and motorcycles), gross series, in March 2023, compared to March 2022, registered an overall increase of 7.3%. series adjusted according to the number of working days and seasonality, in March 2023, compared to March 2022, business in
