Eurozone retail sales declined by 0.6% month-on-month in July 2026, following an upwardly revised 0.2% increase in June and falling short of market expectations for a 0.3% rise. This marked the first drop in retail trade since April and the sharpest contraction since May 2025, reflecting weaker demand for non-food products (-1.4% vs. +0.5% in June) and fuel (-0.8% vs. +1.8%).
By contrast, sales of food, drinks and tobacco grew by 0.4%, rebounding from a 0.6% decline in the previous month. Among the eurozone’s largest economies, retail sales posted notable declines in Germany (-3.4% vs. 0.0%), Spain (-0.9% vs. +0.4%) and Italy (-0.3% vs. 0.0%), while they rose in France (+0.9% vs. +0.4%) and the Netherlands (+0.2%, unchanged from June).
On a year-on-year basis, retail sales growth slowed to 0.6% in July from 1.4% in June, the weakest rate of expansion in two years.
