Retail sales in Italy edged up by 0.1% month-on-month in September 2026, slowing from a 0.3% rise in August and falling short of market expectations for a 0.2% increase. Food sales were flat, following a 0.7% gain in the previous month, while non-food sales rose by 0.3% after stagnating in August.
On an annual basis, retail sales grew by 1.6%, accelerating from a 0.5% increase in August. The upturn was broad-based, with sales of both food (+1.7%) and non-food products (+1.5%) improving. Within the non-food segment, IT and telecommunications equipment recorded the strongest advance (+5.7%), whereas clothing and furs were the only category to post a decline (-0.6%).
Sales increased across all distribution formats, but online retail remained particularly buoyant, surging by 8.5%. Over the third quarter of 2026 as a whole, however, retail sales slipped by 0.3% in value and by 0.5% in volume compared with the previous three-month period.
