In May of this year, retail turnover in Latvia decreased by 1.9% compared to the same month last year, placing Latvia among seven European Union (EU) countries where retail trade volumes declined year-on-year, according to data published on Friday by the EU statistical office Eurostat for 25 member states.
Alongside Latvia, a drop in retail turnover was also recorded in Finland (-2.2%), Sweden (-1.8%), Slovakia (-1.7%), Malta and the Netherlands (both -0.5%), and Italy (-0.4%).
Meanwhile, the largest year-on-year increases were observed in Cyprus (+7.9%), Bulgaria (+7.2%), and Luxembourg (+6.3%). In Estonia, retail turnover grew by 2.5%, and in Lithuania – as well as in Hungary – it increased by 2%.
Across the EU countries for which data is available, retail turnover in May rose by 1.9% year-on-year, while in the eurozone it increased by 1.8%.
However, compared to the previous month,
retail volumes in May dropped by 0.7% in the EU and by 0.8% in the eurozone.
The sharpest month-on-month declines were recorded in Sweden (-4.6%), Belgium (-2.5%), and Estonia (-2.2%). In Latvia, retail turnover in May was 0.7% lower than in April, while in Lithuania – as in Luxembourg – it fell by 0.1%.
Overall, month-on-month retail declines were registered in 17 EU countries for which data is available. In Malta and Slovenia, retail turnover remained unchanged, while six countries saw an increase: Portugal (+2.1%), Bulgaria (+2%), Cyprus (+1%), Denmark (+0.6%), Ireland (+0.4%), and Spain (+0.2%).
Data for the Czech Republic and Greece was not available.
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