Key facts
- Euro area retail sales fell 0.4% month-over-month in April.
- The April decline was larger than the expected 0.3% drop.
- March retail sales were revised higher to +0.8%.
- Q1 Euro area GDP was revised down to a 0.2% contraction.
- Ireland's Q1 GDP dropped over 12%, impacting the aggregate figure.
Euro area retail sales saw a 0.4% decrease in April, exceeding the anticipated 0.3% decline. This follows a significant upward revision of March's figure to +0.8%. The April downturn was primarily driven by a 0.9% drop in non-food retail sales and a 2.7% decrease in automotive fuel sales. Food store sales, however, increased by 0.9% in April. Concurrently, the Euro area's Q1 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was revised downwards to a 0.2% contraction. This revision is heavily influenced by a substantial over 12% drop in Ireland's GDP for the quarter, attributed to technical accounting corrections and the unwinding effect of accelerated manufacturing and exports by tech and pharmaceutical firms in the previous year to preempt tariffs. Excluding Ireland's impact, other major economies showed positive growth in Q1. Positive contributions to the Euro area's GDP came from household consumption (+0.1%) and government expenditure (+0.1%), but these were offset by negative contributions from gross fixed capital formation (-0.1%), changes in inventories (-0.1%), and net exports (-0.3%).