Apart from Germany, Romania was the only EU country to report a growth in retail trade in April, according to figures published today ( June 5 ) by the EU's statistics service Eurostat.

Of the 21 states for which figures were available, retail trade fell in 18 in April compared to March this year, Bulgaria's results were flat and Romania recorded a 0.8 percent increase, while Germany was up 0.6 percent. The biggest falls in total retail trade were seen in Austria, -3.5 percent, Slovenia -2.9 percent and Finland -2.7 percent.

Overall for the EU, retail trade fell by 1.1 percent in April compared to March 2012, while for the eurozone the drop was 1 percent for the same period.

Looking at April 2012 against April 2011, Romania was again among the best performers, the 3.4 percent rise was the third highest in the EU after Estonia ( +8.5 percent ) and Latvia ( +7.8 percent ).

For total retail trade in the EU 27 there was a fall of 2.5 percent in April 2012 compared to April 2011, while the drop for the eurozone was 1.9 percent.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com