Among the Member States of European Union, total retail trade rose in April in thirteen and decreased in eight. The highest increases were observed in Estonia (+9.5 pc), Luxembourg (+9.4 pc) and Lithuania (+7.3 pc), and the largest decreases in Malta (-8.0 pc), Romania (-6.3 pc) and Portugal (-4.0 pc). These first estimates come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, presented in a press release. In April, compared with March, the volume of retail trade, based on data adjusted for working days and seasonal effects, rose by 0.9 pc in the euro area (EA17 – Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland) and by 1.1 pc in the EU27 (Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom). In March retail trade fell by 0.9 pc in the EA17 and 0.8 pc in EU27 respectively.
