Overall retail trade volume in the European Union inched down 0.2% on the year in December, EU’s statistics agency Eurostat said.
Among the member states for which data were available, total retail trade fell in eight and rose in fourteen. The highest annual increases were observed in Luxembourg (+9.4%), Poland (+6.7%) and Romania, and the largest decreases in Germany (-2.4%), Belgium (-1.9%) and Finland (-1.3%).
In December compared with November, Romanian retail sales edged up 0.6%, the data showed. Sales in the European Union decreased 0.8% on the month.
Total retail trade fell in sixteen EU states and rose in six. The largest monthly decreases were observed in Portugal (-5.8%), Spain (-3.6%) and Germany (-2.5%), and the highest increases in the United Kingdom (+2.6%), Malta (+2%) and Ireland (+1.4%).
The data are adjusted for working days and seasonal effects.