Eurozone retail sales struggle in July

Eurozone retail sales edged only marginally higher in July, official data showed on Thursday, as a recovery struggled to take hold.

According to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office, the seasonally-adjusted retail trade volume increased by just 0.1% in June. In the wider EU, sales ticked up 0.2%.

In June, sales fell by 0.4% in both the Eurozone and wider bloc.

Eurozone food, drink and tobacco sales rose 0.4% in July, while non-food products nudged 0.1% higher. But automotive sales in specialised stores fell 1%.

Among member states, sales rose 0.5% in Spain and 0.1% in France. Data was not available for Italy or Germany, the bloc’s biggest economy.

Year-on-year, sales fell 0.1% in the Eurozone and by 0.4% in the EU. Consensus had been for a 0.1% uptick in the Eurozone.

Bert Colijn, senior economist, Eurozone, at ING, said: "The economy isn’t showing signs of further acceleration after a surprisingly strong first half year. In fact, it looks like the economy is slightly decelerating at the moment. This would make for a disappointing recovery after a long period of stagnation."

He called the retail sales data "not particularly encouraging", adding: "There is no evidence yet of a real recovery.

"Retail sales have suffered from the reopening of services after the pandemic and from a decline in real incomes for Europeans, which has limited goods consumption."