Eurozone Retail Sales Fall the Most in 2 Years

Eurozone retail sales fell by 0.7% month over month in September 2026, following an upwardly revised 0.4% increase in August and significantly missing market expectations of a 0.1% decline. The contraction matched July’s sharp drop, marking the steepest monthly declines since June 2024, with sales of non-food products falling 1.2%, reversing a 0.6% increase in August, while food, drinks and tobacco sales declined 0.3%, following a 0.4% gain in the previous month. In contrast, automotive fuel sales rose 1.0%, rebounding after two consecutive months of declines. Among the eurozone’s largest economies, retail trade contracted sharply in Germany (-2.0% vs. 1.2% in August), followed by the Netherlands (-0.7% vs. 0.5%), France (-0.6% vs. 0.3%) and Spain (-0.4% vs. 0.2%). Italy was the exception, with sales edging up 0.1% after remaining unchanged in August. On a yearly basis, retail sales growth slowed to 0.4% from 1.3% in August, also falling short of market expectations of 0.6%.

Retail sales volumes in the Eurozone inched higher by 0.1% from the previous month in August of 2026, loosely aligned with market expectations of a 0.2% increase and trimming the 0.6% drop in July, which was the sharpest decline in over one year. Sales were sharply higher for core non-food products (0.5% vs -1.2% in July) to reflect some fresh resilience to higher borrowing costs and prices, while food, drinks, and tobacco sales also inched up (0.1% vs -0.1%). In turn, automotive fuel sales volumes plunged 1.9%, extending the 0.2% drop in the earlier period as the surge in fuel prices drove consumers to cut back on tank refills. From the previous year, Eurozone retail sales jumped by 0.8%, rebounding from the two-year low increase of 0.4% in July.

Eurozone retail sales fell 0.6% month-on-month in July 2026, following an upwardly revised 0.2% increase in June and missing market expectations of a 0.3% rise. It was the first decline in retail trade since April and the steepest since May 2025, driven by weaker sales of non-food products (-1.4% vs. 0.5%) and fuel (-0.8% vs. 1.8%). Meanwhile, sales of food, drinks and tobacco rose 0.4%, rebounding from a 0.6% decline in June. Among the eurozone’s largest economies, retail sales fell sharply in Germany (-3.4% vs. 0.0%), Spain (-0.9% vs. 0.4%) and Italy (-0.3% vs. 0.0%), while increasing in France (0.9% vs. 0.4%) and the Netherlands (0.2%, unchanged from June). On an annual basis, retail sales growth slowed to 0.6% in July from 1.4% in June, marking the weakest pace in two years.