Retail Trade Volumes Up 0.3% Across Europe

March 2014 saw retail trade increase across Europe by 0.3%. In February the increase in trade had been 0.1% in the euro area and 0.3% in the EU28. The annual comparison shows that in March 2014 compared with March 2013 the increase was 0.9% in the euro area and 1.6% in the EU28.

The 0.3% increase in the volume of retail trade on the monthly comparison in the euro area is due to a rise of 1.3% in the food, drinks and tobacco sector while the volume fell by 0.3% in the non-food sector and 0.1% in automotive fuel. In the EU28 the rise was due t rises of 1% for automotive fuel and 0.7% for food, drinks and tobacco.

The biggest increases were seen in Estonia and Latvia with 2.8%, France 2.3% and Romania with 2.2%. The decreases were in Portugal with a decrease of 1.7%, Austria with 0.9%, Germany, Ireland and Slovenia all with 0.7%.

The increase of 0.9% in volume over the year was due to rises of 1.9% in the non-food sector, 0.3% in automotive fuel and 0.3% in food, drinks and tobacco in the euro sector. The increase of 1.6% in the volume of retail trade in the EU28 was due to rises of 3.3% in the non-food sector and 1.8% for automotive fuel. Food, drinks and tobacco fell by 0.1%.

Romania saw the biggest increase with a rise of 13.4% in volume, Luxembourg was next with 12.1% and Hungary with 8.4%. Malta with -2%, Finland with -1.3%, Slovenia -1.1% and Spain with -0.6% saw the biggest decreases in volume of retail trade.

European Production Up 1.8%

Industrial production increased by 1.8% in the euro area between October and November 2013 according to a statistical bulletin from Eurostat. Production also increased across the EU as a whole with growth of 1.5% in the EU28. Production had decreased in October by 0.8% and 0.5% respectively. Ireland reported the biggest increase with 11.7%. There was monthly growth in all 5 sectors - capital goods, durable consumer goods, energy, non-durable consumer goods and intermediate goods.

There was an annual increase of 3% in both the euro area and the EU28 with the largest increases reported in Ireland with growth of 13.2% and Slovakia with 12.7%. Over the year capital goods increased by 4.4% in the euro area and 4.7% in the EU28. Intermediate goods grew by 3.3% and 3.5% respectively and non-durable goods grew by 3.1% and 2.7% respectively. Energy decreased by 0.5% in the euro area and 1.4% in the EU28 and durable consumer goods fell by 0.8% and 0.3% respectively.

Healthy Life Years To Go

Healthy life years measure the number of years a person can expect to live in a generally healthy condition. At birth, in 2011, men and women in the EU27 could expect to live to 62 years. At 50 people could expect to live another 18 years and at 65 people in Europe culd expect another 9 healthy years of life.

A healthy condition is defined as the absence of limitations to functioning/disability. It is measured by a self-perceived questionnaire asking for the extent of any limitations lasting for over 6 months and caused by a health problem. The indicator of healthy life years measures the number of years a person can expect to live without any serious health problems. It means the respondenets can carry on their usual activities.

At birth, men and women in Sweden and Malta can expect to live to over 70 years. The lowest numbers of healthy life years were 52 in Slovakia and 54 in Slovenia for both men and women. At 50 both women and men were expected to have more than another 20 years in Sweden, Malta and Denmark, Luxembourg, Ireland and the UK. The lowest was Slovakia with 10 years for both men and women. At 65, highest healthy life years were in Sweden with an additional 15 years for women and 14 for men and the lowest Was Slovakia with 3 and 4 years respectively.

European Inflation Falls In October

Inflation in Europe fell in October according to Eurostat. Euro area inflation fell 0.1% from 2.6% in September to 2.5% in October. EU annual inflation was 2.6% in October down from 2.7% in September. The annual comparison also shows a decrease in inflation in the euro area from 3% and in the EU27 from 3.4% last year. The lowest annual rates in October were seen in Greece, Sweden and Latvia and the highest in Hungary, Romania and Estonia. The lowest annual averages were in Sweden, Greece and Ireland and the highest in Hungary, Estonia and Poland. In the euro area the main components for annual rates were transport, alcohol and tobacco and housing and the lowest in communiactions, recreation and culture, clothing and household equipment. The monthly rate were mainly affected by clothing and education, alcohol and tobacco and the lowest for transport, communications, recreation and culture and hotels and restaurants.

Retail Sales Down 0.4% In Euro Area

Euro area retail trade fell by 0.4% in terms of volume in December 2011 compared with November while it grew by 0.3% in the EU27 over the same period. Food, drinks and tobacco fell by 0.2% in the euro area and grew by 0.3% in the EU27. Non-food sector categories grew by 0.3% in the EU27 but fell by 0.1% in the euro area.

Total retail trade fell in eleven states and grew in eight states remaining stable in Ireland and Sweden. The highest increases were in Portugal (2.2%), Belgium (1.5%) and Poland (0.7%) and the biggest decreases were in Malta and Slovenia (both -3.1%) and Latvia (-2%).

The annual comparison shows that in December 2011 compared with December 2010 the food, drinks and tobacco sector fell by 1.3% in the euro area and 0.6% in the EU27 and the non-food sector decreased by 1.5% in the euro area but grew by 0.8% in the EU27. The total retail sales index for the EU27 shows growth of 0.1% but in the euro area a fall of 1.6%.

Trade fell in ten states but rose in eleven. The largest increases were in Lithuania (13%), Latvia (7.1%) and the UK (6.3%). The biggest falls in trade were recorded in Portugal (-8.8%), Spain (-5.3%) and Slovakia (-3.3%) (Eurostat).

Producer Prices Up In Europe

The industrial producer prices index by Eurostat increased by 0.2% in the euro area in November 2011 and by 0.3% in the EU27 compared with October. When compared with November 2010 the index went up by 5.3% in the euro area and by 6.3% in the EU27.

Total industry prices excluding energy fell by 0.1% in the euro area and remained stable in the EU27 in the monthly comparison. Energy prices increased by 0.9% and 0.1% respectively. Non-durable consumer goods increased by 0.3% in both areas and durables by 0.2%. Intermediate goods fell by 0.4% and 0.3% respectively and capital goods remained stable.

In the annual comparison total industry prices increased by 3% in the euro area and by 3.3% in the EU27. Energy prices increased by 12.3% and 13.8% respectively. Prices in the non-durable goods sector increased by 3.6% in the euro area and 4.2% in the EU27, intermediate goods by 3.5% and 3.8% respectively, durables by 2.6% in both zones and capital goods by 1.4% in the euro area and by 1.5% in the EU27.

Sweden reported the largest increases on the monthly comparison with 1.6%, followed by the UK, Ireland and Greece. Using the annual comparison, the greates increases were in the UK with 11.6% followed by Lithuania (10.8%) and Latvia (9.1%).

UK Inflation Highest In Europe

Euro area annual inflation was unchanged from October at 3% in November. Monthly inflation was 0.1%. EU annual inflation was also unchanged from October at 3.4%. Monthly inflation was 0.2%.

The lowest annual rates among member states were in Sweden (1.1%), Malta (1.5%) and Ireland (1.7%). The highest inflation rates in November were in Slovenia and the UK (both 4.8%).

Poverty And Social Exclusion In Europe

Eurostat has released details of a new publication 'Income and living conditions in Europe' issued in connection with the closing conference of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion due to take place 16-17 December 2010. It is based on data from the EU-SILC survey.

One of the key targets of the Europe 2020 strategy is to lift at least 20m people in the EU27 out of the risk of poverty or social exclusion. Progress towards this is measured using a combination of three measures: persons at risk of poverty; severely materially deprived persons and persons living in households with very low work intensity. In 2008 nearly 116m people in the EU27 were affected by at least one of the three criteria of social exclusion and nearly 7m fall under all three criteria.

In the EU27 16.5% of the population, a total of 81m people, were at risk of poverty after social transfers. The country with the highest percentage of the total population in this category was Latvia (25.6%), the lowest percentage was in the Czech Republic (9%). In the UK 18.8% of the population or 11.4m people fell into this category.

Bulgaria (41.2%) had the highest percentage of severely materially deprived persons and lowest percentage was in Luxembourg (0.7%). In the EU27 8.5% of the population or 41.5m people fell into this category. The UK figure was 4.5% or 2.7m people.

Ireland (13.6%) had the highest percentage of people living in households with very low work intensity. The lowest percentage was in Cyprus (4.1%). In the UK 4.8m people, 10.2% of the population, were in this category. The EU27 percentage was 9%. The total number of people in this category in the EU27 was 34.2m.

An Increase In European Inflation In July

Euro area inflation (MUICP) was 1.7% in July 2010 comapred with 1.4% in June and EU annual inflation (EICP) was 2.1% compared with 1.9% in June. The lowest rates were in Ireland (-1.2%), Latvia (-0.7%) and Slovakia (1%) and the highest were in Romania (7.1%), Greece (5.5%) and Hungary (3.6%).

Consumer Inflation Falling Across Europe

Euro area inflation in June 2010 was 1.4% down from 1.6% in May. EU annual inflation was 1.9% in June from 2% in May. It was 0.6% a year ago.

The lowest annual inflation rates among Member States in June 2010 were in Ireland with -2% and Latvia with -1.6%. Greece had the highest inflation rate with 5.2% followed by Hungary with 5% and Romania with 4.3%. Inflation fell in 15 Member States, remained stable in 4 and grew in 8.

The things that added most to annual inflation in the euro area were transport and alcohol and tobacco. The lowest rates were in communications, recreation and culture and food. Monthly inflation was mostly affected by increases in alcohol and tobacco and hotels and restaurants. The lowest increases were in clothing, transport and communication.

Euro Industry Increases Production By 0.9%

Industrial production in the euro area (EU16) increased by 0.9% over the month to May 2010 and by 9.4% over the year. In the EU27 production grew by 0.5% over the month and by 8.7% over the year to May 2010.

The production of durable consumer goods increased by 2.4% in the euro area and by 1.8% in the EU27 in May compared with April. Capital goods increased by 1% and 1.7% respectively and intermediate goods by 0.8% in both the euro area and the EU27. Energy production increased by 0.6% and 1.3% in the euro area and the EU27 respectively and non-durables grew by 0.6% and 0.9%. Production increased in 16 Member States and fell in 6. The highest increase was in Ireland with 7.5%.

Over the year from May 2009 to May 2010 production of intermediate goods increased by 14.7% in the euro area and 13.7% in the EU27. Capital goods increased by 8.6% and 9% in the euro area and the EU27 respectively. Energy production increased by 5.7% and 4.3%. Durables grew by 6.3% in the euro area and 7.7% in the EU27 and non-durables by 3.7% and 3.3% respectively. Industrial production increased in all Member States over the year with the biggest increases in Estonia with 17.2% and Luxembourg with 13.5% and Sweden with 13.4%, Latvia with 13.2% and Germany with 13.1%.

GDP Up 0.2% In Europe

EU GDP increased by 0.2% during the first quarter of 2010 according to a news release from Eurostat. GDP in both the euro area and the EU27 rose by the same amount in the quarter according to these second estimates.

These figures compare with the 0.1% and 0.2% growth in GDP in the euro area and the EU27 rspectively in the last quarter of 2009. In comparison with the first quarter of 2009 GDP rose by 0.6% in the euro area and by 0.5% in the EU27 after falling by 2.1% and 2.3% respectively in the previous quarter.

The Member States which data are available show that Ireland recorded the highest GDP growth with 2.7%, then Sweden with 1.4% and Portugal with 1.1% growth on the previous quarter. Comparing the same quarter of the previous year, Slovakia recorded the highest GDP growth with 4.5%. GDP in the US grew by 0.7% and Japan by 1.2% in the first quarter 2010. When compared with the same quarter last year the US GDP has grown by 2.4% and Japan's GDP by 4.2%.

Among the various components of GDP household final consumption expenditure decreased by 0.1% in the euro area and the EU27. Investments fell by 1.2% in the euro area and by 0.3% in the EU27. Exports increased by 2.1% in the euro area and by 2% in the EU27 and imports rose by 3.8% and 3.4% respectively.

EU Inflation Unchanged At 2%

EU annual inflation was unchanged at 2% in May 2010. The previous year it was 0.8%. Monthly inflation in May was 0.2%. Annual inflation in the euro area was 1.6% in May. This time last year it was 0.0%. Monthly inflation was 0.1% in May 2010.

The lowest annual inflation rates in the EU in May were in Latvia (-2.4%) and Ireland (-1.9%). The highest rates of inflation were in Greece (5.3%), Hungary (4.9%) and Romania (3.6%). Inflation fell in 10 member states and rose in 12. It was stable in the other 5. Over the year the picture is much the same with the highest rates in Ireland (-2.5%), Latvia (-1.2%) and Portugal (-0.5%) and the lowest in Hungary (5.1%), Romania (4.7%) and Poland (3.6%).

The main contributions to the changes came from recreation and culture and alcohol and tobacco (0.4%) with the highest monthly rates and food and communications (both -0.2%) and education (0.0%) the lowest.

Production In Europe Increased In April

Indicators from Eurostat tell us that in April 2010 industrial production in the euro area was up by 0.8% and by 0.5% in the EU27 compared with March 2010. Other monthly comparisons include the production of capital goods which increased by 1.1% in the euro area and 0.7% in the EU27. Durable consumer goods fell by 0.1% in the euro area but increased by 0.4% in the EU27. Non-durables fell by 1.2% and 1.6%. Intermediate goods grew by 2.2% and 2.7% respectively but energy fell by 0.9% and 0.2%. Industrial production rose in 12 and fell in 9 of the countries for which data is available. The highest increases were in Lithuania with 6%, Estonia 2.4% and Denmark with 2.2%. Ireland registered the biggest decrease with 10.9%, Portugal's production fell by 4.4% and Greece by 3.4%.

Annual comparisons suggest that in April 2010 compared with April 2009 industrial production increased by 9.5% in the euro area and 7.8% in the EU27. Intermediate goods made the biggest contribution with growth of 16% in the euro area and 14.1% in the EU27. Capital goods increased by 8.9% in the euro area and 7.9% in the EU27. Energy production rose by 6.9% and 5% respectively. Production of non-durable consumer goods went up by 3% in the euro area and 1.1% in the EU27 and of durables by 1.4% and 4.1% respectively. On a national level industrial production rose in 18 of the member states for which data is available. The highest increases were in Estonia (18.3%), the Netherlands (14.7%) and Germany (13.9%). The only states in which industrial production fell were Greece (-6.4%), Ireland (-2.8%) and Bulgaria (-2.6%).

Ageing In The European Union

Ageing in the context of EU statistics is the increase over time of the percentage share of the over 65 age group in the total population of a given area. It is increasing in the EU because of two factors. The first is that the number of people over 65 is growing and the second is because the number of children in age group 0-14 year is getting smaller. This is a general picture though and there are considerable variations in the types of area and NUTS3 areas.

The release from Eurostat tells us that rural areas are losing their young people faster than urban areas. It presents the populaton changes in 1158 NUTS3 areas of 26 member states (not UK) between 2001-2006. It takes the level of rurality of NUTS3 into account for three age groups - 0-14, 15-64, 65 and over. The changes mean variations in the population's composition.

The total population of EU27 has increased by 1.9% or 8,217,047 people with an increase of 9,708,045 people in the EU15 offset by a decrease in the new member states of 1,490,998 people or -1.4%. The 0-14 age group has decreased by 4.4%, the 15-64 age group increased by 1.9% and the over 65s by 8.9% or 5,961,157 people. A contrast can be seen between the 'old' and 'new' member states. In the new member states the 0-14 age group shrank by 14% and the over 65s increased by 5.3%. The over 65s in the EU15 increeased by 9.8%.

The types of area (TOA) analysis also show remarkable results. Ageing continues at a more pronounced rate in predominantly urban areas (46%), except in Spain and remained the same in Ireland and Sweden. Only 16.5% of the increase can be attributed to rural areas in EU27 where 21.4% of the population live. The combined effect of the two factors influencing population change mean that Germany, Greece and Latvia show a rapidly ageing population while France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, where over 20% of the population in rural areas is over 65, show smaller and even negative growth. In Bulgaria there has been a 5% population loss overall with a 10% loss in predominantly rural areas. It is also significant that in there areas the percentage of children fell by up to 17%. Also in Bulgaria where the number of over 65s fell by 4% they were not replaced by numbers from the working population.

The highest population gains at NUTS3 level were in Spain and Ireland with Guadalajara in Spain, an intermediate area, gaining 24.5% in population. At the other extreme Bulgaria and Germany decreased the most in population. The population of Kardzhali in Bulgaria, a predominantly rural area, decreased by 21%. The German areas were exclusively in the former East Germany. Barnim in Germany, an intermediate area, saw the highest increase in people aged 65 and over with an increase of 33.3% with Neubrandenburg on 33.2% and Potsdam on 32.9%. Vratsa, a predominantly rural area in Bulgaria, saw an decrease of 15.9% in the same age group. The highest increase in the over 65 age group was in Germany and the growth was not limited to the east but covered large areas of the west as well.

There were contrasts between east and west Germany and between north and south Italy. Only Berlin in eastern Germany grew in population size. Areas of northern Italy grew while the population of the south of Italy decreased.