Retail trade volume up by 7% in March

Johanna Linda Pihlak, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the turnover volume of enterprises engaged in the retail sale of automotive fuel grew by 15% year on year, despite the sharp increase in fuel prices. “One of the reasons was the uncertainty felt by consumers – fearing future price hikes, people started to stock up on fuel,” noted Pihlak.

Compared with March 2025, the turnover volume of stores selling manufactured goods increased by 10%. At the same time, the turnover volume of grocery stores continued to decline in March and was down by 2% year on year. “The turnover volume of grocery stores has decreased due to the rising prices of food products,” explained Pihlak.

Compared with February this year, the volume of retail trade turnover grew by 15% in March. According to the seasonally and working-day adjusted data, turnover volume was up by 1% in comparison with the previous month.

In the first three months of 2026 (January–March), the volume of retail trade turnover increased by 7% compared with the same period of the previous year.

Changes in the publication of retail trade data

Starting from 2026, we no longer publish data on detailed activities of stores selling manufactured goods and grocery stores; these data are included under more general activities. Pursuant to EU regulations, Statistics Estonia will continue to publish trade data according to the EMTAK 2008 classification until the end of 2027, while the Business Register only uses EMTAK 2025, the new version of the classification, starting from 2025.

The central principle of EMTAK 2025 is that classification should be based on the item sold, while classification according to EMTAK 2008 is based on the type of sales channel (store, market, online store) used. Therefore, it is not always possible to provide exact correspondence between EMTAK 2008 and EMTAK 2025, and the data are not comparable due to lack of information about the enterprise’s sales channel. For example, an enterprise engaged in retail sale via mail order houses or via internet according to EMTAK 2008 might be classified under the retail sale of consumer electronics, clothing or household equipment according to EMTAK 2025, depending on the specific goods sold. Since registers do not contain information about the sales channel, it would be difficult to classify the enterprise under “Retail sale via mail order houses or via internet”. 

Retail trade data according to EMTAK 2025 will be published starting from 2028 when weights based on this classification are available to calculate price indices by activity. This will allow the calculation of volume indices according to EMTAK 2025. More information about the publication of statistics according to EMTAK 2025 is available on Statistics Estonia’s website.

Retail trade data are published according to the main economic activity of enterprises registered in Estonia. 

Turnover volume index is an index that expresses the change in the volume of sales of goods at constant prices compared with the sales in a previous period. Price indices of goods are used in the calculation of the turnover volume index.

The statistics are based on the VAT declaration data of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board. Statistics Estonia performs the statistical activity “Financial statistics of trade enterprises (monthly)” for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications in order to determine how the Estonian economy is doing.

Data as at 29 April 2026 are published. The indicator values may change if there are any revisions made in the data sources after this date.

See also the internal trade section on our website. The data have been published in the statistical database.

When using Statistics Estonia’s data and graphs, please indicate the source.

For further information:

Annaliisa Köss
Media Relations Partner
Marketing and Dissemination Department
Statistics Estonia
Tel +372 5696 6484
press [at] stat.ee (press[at]stat[dot]ee)

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