According to the EU statistics office, the volume of retail sales rose 0.4 percent in the euro- zone in October and 0.9 percent in the 28 Member States compared to the same month of 2016, but decreased by 1.1 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, in comparison with September.
Portugal recorded the second largest monthly drop (-2.3 percent), after Luxembourg (-5.3 percent) and followed by Austria (-1.9 percent), with the most significant monthly increases seen in Romania (1.0 percent), the United Kingdom (0.9 percent), Poland and Slovakia (0.6 percent each).
In year-on-year terms Romania (12.6 percent), Poland (7.1 percent), Ireland, Hungary and Malta (6.3 percent) recorded the highest increases in the indicator and Luxembourg (-2.7 percent), Austria (-2.2 percent) and Bulgaria (-2.1 percent) the largest falls.
In Portugal, the volume of retail sales increased by 1.9 percent compared to October 2016.