- Retail sales +0.2% vs +0.3% m/m expected
- Prior -0.4%; revised to -0.3%
- Retail sales +1.6% vs +1.6% y/y expected
- Prior +1.0%; revised to +0.9%
Euro area retail sales bounced back in May after a more sluggish showing in April before this. The rebound was more broad-based with an increase in the volume of retail trade for food, drinks, tobacco (+0.6%) and also for non-food products (+0.1%). Meanwhile, there was a drop in the the volume of retail trade for automotive fuel in specialised stores (-0.5%).
The annual estimate continues to show that retail sales activity is holding up so far this year with an increase of 1.6%. While there might be concerns on higher inflation hitting at consumption, it’s not quite as bad just yet. That being said, we will have to see how the trend develops over the next few months and past the summer especially.