The consumer research body GfK expects nominal sales growth of 2 per cent for bricks and mortar retailers in the 27 EU states (not including the UK) in 2019.
GfK forecasts the highest growth rates for Romania (+7 per cent) and Lithuania (+5.9 per cent). Spain (+2.4 per cent) and France (+2.8 per cent) are also expected to experience a positive trend, according to the study Retailing in Europe by GfK Geomarketing.
An increase in retail area was also observed for all the states in question as a whole, but on a much lower level than in previous years. EU-wide growth in population and retail area was evenly balanced in 2018 with the per capita retail area remaining at the previous year's figure of 1.13 m². The top 3 in per capita retail area are the Benelux states Belgium (1.66 m²) and the Netherlands (1.6 m²) along with Austria (1.62 m²).
