(Xinhua)09:36, August 06, 2020
Eurostat, the European Unions statistics agency, said on Wednesday that in June the blocs retail sale regained 99.7 percent of the volume that it had reached in February before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The seasonally-adjusted volume of retail trade increased by 5.7 percent in the euro area in June and by 5.2 percent in the EU compared with the previous month.
Eurostat also revised its earlier estimate of the retail trade volume to 20.3 percent increase in the euro area and 18.3 percent increase in the EU in May.
In March and April, when most of the prevention measures were taken in the EU member states, all non-food product groups showed exceptionally big decreases, in particular the decline for textiles, clothes and footwear was extremely steep.
The two months loss for automotive fuel was 43.4 percent, for computers, books and similar products it was 40.7 percent, and for electrical goods and furniture, 34.5 percent, said Eurostat.
When the containment measures began to be eased in May, sales for all non-food product groups picked up. With the next increases of sales in June, the pre-crisis level of sales was regained or even exceeded for some product groups.
Sales of textiles, clothing and footwear grew by 20.5 percent month-on-month in June in the EU, after a record 130.7 percent jump in May. Consumers also bought more car fuel, computer equipment and medical goods