Eurozone retail sales volumes fell by 0.6% in July, reversing June’s 0.2% increase, according to Eurostat data released on Friday. Non-food purchases weakened while food, drink and tobacco sales rose.
The first estimates showed sales remained 0.6% above July 2025, compared with annual growth of 1.4% in June. Across the wider European Union, volumes fell 0.4% month on month.
Eurostat’s volume measure removes price changes from retailers’ turnover. It tracks how much is sold, rather than simply how much money passes through the tills. Monthly comparisons are adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects.
Germany records the sharpest fall
Sales of non-food products, excluding automotive fuel, fell 1.4% in the eurozone from June. Fuel sales declined 0.8%, while the food, drink and tobacco category increased 0.4%.
Germany recorded the largest monthly decline among EU countries with available data, at 3.4%. Spain fell 0.9%. France moved in the opposite direction, with sales rising 0.9%.
The uneven national results follow a mixed second-quarter growth picture. As we reported in our coverage of OECD figures, Germany and Italy slowed while France returned to growth. The retail release provides an early reading on goods demand in the following quarter.
Retail sales cover only part of household spending. Services such as holidays and restaurant meals fall outside this indicator, so the decline cannot be read as an equivalent fall in total consumption.
Energy prices add pressure to household budgets
A separate Eurostat flash estimate put annual eurozone inflation at 3.3% in August, up from 2.9% in July. Energy prices were estimated to be 14.3% higher than a year earlier, compared with a 10.3% annual increase in July.
Underlying price pressures were less pronounced. Inflation excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco eased to 2.4% from 2.5%, while services inflation slowed to 3.0% from 3.3%.
Higher energy bills can leave households with less to spend on other purchases. But August’s inflation estimate covers a later period than July’s retail figures and does not establish what caused the sales decline.
Eurostat is scheduled to publish full August inflation data on 17 September and its next retail trade release on 6 October.
