In November 2007, the volume of retail trade1 fell by 0.5% in the Eurozone2 (EA13) and by 0.2% in the EU272 compared with October 2007. In October3 retail trade fell by 0.7% and 0.4% respectively.
In in the year to November 20074, the retail sales index fell by 1.4% in the Eurozone, but rose by 0.9% in the EU27.
Monthly changes
In November 2007, “food, drinks and tobacco” fell by 0.4% in the Eurozone and by 0.2% in the EU27, compared with October 2007.. The non food sector decreased by 0.6% and 0.2% respectively.
Among the Member States for which data are available, total retail trade rose in nine Member States and fell in seven. The largest increases were observed in Luxembourg (+13.5%), Latvia (+1.6%) and Finland (+0.9%), and the highest decreases in Belgium (-1.1%), Portugal (-1.0%) and Slovenia (-0.8%).
Annual changes
In November 2007, compared to November 2006, retail trade of “food, drinks and tobacco” fell by 1.1% in the Eurozone, but remained unchanged in the EU27. The non food sector fell by 1.7% in the Eurozone, but rose by 1.3% in the EU27.
Among the Member States for which data are available, total retail trade rose in twelve Member States and fell in four. The largest increases were observed in Poland (+13.1%), Latvia (+12.3%), Lithuania (+9.3%) and Sweden (+5.6%), and the highest decreases in Belgium (-5.3%) and Denmark (-0.8%).
In the latest month for which data is available, annual Irish sales volume was 7.2% in September 2007.
Chart and tables
These first estimates come from Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union.
- Based on data adjusted for working days and seasonal effects.
The seasonally adjusted Eurozone and EU series are calculated by aggregating the working day adjusted series from individual Member States and performing an adjustment for seasonal effects on these series. Therefore the European seasonally adjusted figures for total retail trade are based directly on the working day adjusted series coming from the Member States and not on an aggregation of the seasonally adjusted indices from the Member States. The Eurozone and EU seasonally adjusted growth rates might differ from the weighted growth rates of the individual Member States. This procedure also implies that the aggregation of total retail trade is not directly based on the published details (food, non-food).
- The Eurozone (EA13) consisted of 13 Member States up to 31 December 2007: Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Finland. From 1 January 2008 the Eurozone (EA15) also includes Cyprus and Malta.
The EU27 includes Belgium (BE), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).
As part of Eurostat's guidelines for the dissemination of data when the EU or Eurozone is enlarged, the aggregate data series commented on in this News Release refer to the official composition of the Eurozone in the most recent month for which data is available. The data for months up to December 2007 relates to the EA13 series and for January 2008 onwards will relate to the EA15 series.
3. Data of previous months have been revised compared to those issued in the News Release 168/2007 of 5 December 2007, when the figures published for October 2007 were -0.7% in the Eurozone and -0.4% in the EU27 for the monthly variations, and +0.2% in the Eurozone and +1.9% in the EU27 for the annual variations.
4. Based on data adjusted for working days.
