Bulgaria had the fourth-highest annual rise in retail trade in the European Union in August 2026, preliminary Eurostat figures show. Turnover at Bulgarian retailers was up 5.9% compared with August 2025.
Only Sweden, up 7.7%, Cyprus, up 7.5%, and Estonia, up 6%, ranked above Bulgaria. Retail trade across the EU grew 1.2%, and in the eurozone 0.8%.
In July, Bulgaria's annual growth was 5.6%, enough for fifth place, behind Cyprus with 8.6%, Latvia with 6.8%, and Malta and Sweden, both at 6.7%.
Compared with July, retail trade in Bulgaria rose 0.3% in August. In July it had fallen 0.3%, while in June it rose 0.4%.
Across the EU and the eurozone, August was up 0.1% on July — a reversal from the month before, when the EU was down 0.5% and the eurozone down 0.6%.
In the EU, turnover in food, drinks and tobacco rose 1.4% year on year. Non-food goods were up 2.2%, while car fuel sales fell 1.9%. In the eurozone, food, drinks and tobacco were up 1.6%, non-food goods up 1.7%, and car fuel down 3.7%.
Compared with July, food, drinks and tobacco sales in the EU rose 0.3%, non-food goods rose 0.5%, and fuel sold at specialist stores fell 1.3%. In the eurozone, food, drinks and tobacco rose 0.1%, non-food goods rose 0.5%, and car fuel fell 1.9%.
The steepest annual falls in August were in Malta, down 2.4%, Spain, down 0.6%, Italy, down 0.5%, and Germany, down 0.4%.
Month on month, the biggest rise was in Romania, up 2.3%, followed by Sweden, up 1.4%, and Germany, up 1.3%. The sharpest monthly falls were in Luxembourg, down 9.4%, Malta, down 1.9%, and Latvia, down 1.4%.
The figures track the volume of retail trade — that is, retailers' turnover — adjusted for the season and the number of working days. The ranking covers only the EU countries for which data are available for the period.