Eurostat’s February 2026 Retail Report: Divergent Trends Across Europe

Overview Of European Retail Activity

Eurostat data show a slight decline in retail trade across the euro area and the European Union in February 2026, with uneven performance across member states. While overall volumes decreased, several markets, including Cyprus and Malta, recorded growth.

Monthly Performance Insights

Seasonally adjusted data indicate that retail trade volume fell by 0.2% in the euro area and by 0.3% in the EU compared with January 2026. January figures had remained broadly stable, suggesting that consumer activity slowed slightly at the start of the year rather than reversing sharply.

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Sector-Specific Breakdown

Category-level data show mixed performance across segments. Food, drinks, and tobacco volumes declined by 0.5% in the euro area. Non-food products excluding automotive fuel remained stable, indicating limited movement in discretionary spending. Automotive fuel sales increased by 0.7% in the euro area and 1.0% in the EU, partially offsetting declines in other categories.

Divergent National Trends

Performance varied across member states. Cyprus recorded a 0.8% increase in retail trade, matching Portugal. Malta reported the strongest monthly growth at 2.0%, followed by Bulgaria at 1.0%. At the same time, declines were recorded in Lithuania at 2.5%, Poland at 2.4%, and Slovenia at 2.0%, reflecting differences in consumer demand across markets.

Annual Trends And Market Resilience

Year-over-year data show moderate growth despite monthly declines. Retail sales increased by 1.7% in both the euro area and the EU compared with February 2025. Food, drinks, and tobacco recorded annual growth of 1.0% in the euro area. Non-food products rose by 2.3%, while automotive fuel sales increased by 1.4% in the euro area and 1.6% in the EU.

Conclusion

February data point to slower short-term retail activity alongside continued annual growth. Differences across sectors and countries suggest that consumer demand remains uneven across the region, with some markets continuing to expand while others contract.

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Nvidia Launches Open AI Security Alliance With Microsoft, Palantir And SpaceX

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

July 27, 2026

Nvidia and a coalition of technology companies on Monday launched the Open Secure AI Alliance, a new initiative aimed at strengthening artificial intelligence security through open models.

The alliance was announced days after a cyberattack involving OpenAI models targeted AI platform Hugging Face, an incident that renewed debate over whether open or closed AI systems are better suited for cybersecurity.

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Open Models at the Core

Nvidia said the alliance will focus on identifying, disclosing and mitigating AI security vulnerabilities using open technologies.

“The Open Secure AI Alliance will work to remediate and disclose vulnerabilities using open technologies,” the company said in a statement. “The recent Hugging Face security incident delivered a clear reminder: cyber defenders need open, frontier agentic systems for self-defense.”

The alliance includes Microsoft, SpaceX, Palantir and dozens of other technology companies from the U.S. and Europe.

Open-weight models can be downloaded, modified and deployed on an organisation’s own infrastructure, allowing security teams to inspect and adapt them for defensive purposes. By comparison, proprietary models from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are generally accessed through controlled platforms.

U.S. Scrutiny of Chinese AI Grows

The initiative comes as U.S. policymakers weigh potential restrictions on Chinese AI models, particularly open-weight systems. Officials have raised concerns that some Chinese companies may be using distillation techniques to extract knowledge from leading U.S. AI models.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that Chinese companies involved in such activity could face sanctions.

Chris McGuire, senior fellow for China and emerging technologies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told CNBC that potential restrictions could extend beyond model downloads to include API access and cloud-hosted inference services. He added that the debate in Washington is centred on intellectual property protection rather than opposition to open-source AI.

Industry Pushes Back

Last week, Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Palantir and more than 20 other companies urged policymakers not to impose what they described as “premature restrictions” on open-weight AI models, warning such measures could reduce competition and encourage innovation to move overseas.

The launch of the Open Secure AI Alliance signals growing industry support for open AI systems as governments consider new regulatory and security measures.

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