Volume sales in the eurozone increased by 0.1% in March when compared with February this year, statistics from Eurostat show.
The statistical office of the European Union attributed the increase to a rise of 0.2% in food, drinks and tobacco. However, non-food products fell by 0.5%.
Latvia (+2.3%), Portugal (+1.8%), Austria and Sweden (both +1.3%) recorded the highest yearly increases in the total retail trade volume.
Decreases were observed in Ireland (-1.7%), Poland (-0.8%), the United Kingdom (-0.7%) and Germany (-0.6%).
Year To Year
When compared to the same period last year, March saw a 0.8% increase in volume sales.
The report says this is due to a a boost of 1.4% for food, drinks and tobacco, and 0.3% for non-food products.
Malta (+8.6%), Hungary (+7.2%) and Latvia (+6.5%) all saw good growth, while Germany (-1.3%) and Slovenia (-0.5%) experienced a dip in performance.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Aidan O'Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
