- Prior -0.6%; revised to -0.5%
German retail sales closes out the year with a marginal increase, with the December estimate also being 1.5% higher than the same month a year ago. Overall in 2025, retail sales were seen up 2.7% compared to 2024 in real terms. In nominal terms, that figure reflects a 3.8% growth in retail sales instead for the year of 2025.
Looking at the breakdown for the year, food store sales were seen up 1.1% on the year while non-food store sales were up 3.7%. On the latter, the only drag was in textiles and clothing store sales (-0.8%) while other sub-divisions posted positive growth in terms of retail sales volumes for last year. The full breakdown can be seen below:
All in all, it's a positive showing for Germany's retail sector despite more stubborn price pressures weighing in general. It's mostly seen in the services sector but spillover effects to correlate, so this is still a good development to note.
That being said, Europe's largest economy is still a bit of a thorn in the side of the ECB in trying to manage policy setting. And that will continue to be the case in the early stages of 2026 as well.
