Cyprus Outperforms EU Retail Growth With Record Annual Increase In December 2025

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

February 10, 2026

Overview

In a striking development for the European retail sector, Cyprus recorded an 8.2% year-on-year increase in retail trade volume in December 2025, registering the strongest annual growth among EU member states. This performance sets Cyprus apart from its peers, including Bulgaria and Luxembourg.

EU Retail Trade Performance

While Cyprus experienced robust gains, the broader euro area saw a modest 0.5% decline in retail trade volume in December 2025 compared to November. Similarly, the overall EU figures indicated a 0.5% drop month-on-month, despite previous increases in November. The calendar-adjusted retail sales index, however, managed to edge upwards by 1.3% in the euro area and by 1.7% across the EU on an annual basis.

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Category Trends

Disaggregated data revealed mixed trends across retail categories. In the euro area, retail volumes for food, drinks, and tobacco experienced a slight monthly increase of 0.1%, while non-food product sales (excluding automotive fuel) dropped by 1.2%. Automotive fuel sales at specialized outlets remained stable. Conversely, within the EU, food, drinks, and tobacco sales recorded a minor downturn of 0.1%, and non-food products fell by 0.9% month-on-month, although automotive fuel sales enjoyed a modest rise of 0.1%.

Annual Performance by Sector

On an annual scale, the euro area saw a 1.2% increase in food, drinks, and tobacco sales, along with a 1.6% upsurge in non-food items. Automotive fuel sales in specialized stores in the euro area increased by 0.9% year-on-year. Across the EU, similar trends were observed with food, drinks, and tobacco sales advancing by 0.8%, non-food products witnessing a 2.0% rise, and automotive fuel sales climbing by 2.4%. Among individual member states, Cyprus led the annual growth rankings, followed by Bulgaria and Luxembourg, while Slovakia, Romania, and Estonia recorded declines.

Conclusion

The data underscore a stark contrast in retail performance at the close of 2025. Cyprus not only outshone its European counterparts with its stellar 8.2% annual growth but also highlighted underlying vulnerabilities in other EU markets. For industry leaders and investors, these trends serve as a critical indicator of evolving market dynamics across the continent.

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Google Cloud Outage Disrupts Banking And Digital Services Across The UK

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 20, 2026

A power outage at a Google Cloud data centre near London disrupted services across the UK on Tuesday, affecting banks, businesses and other digital platforms. Google said the incident was caused by a power event at its cloud operations, with full recovery expected by around 1300 GMT.

The disruption began at 0608 GMT and affected Google Cloud services in the europe-west2 region, which is hosted in London. In an initial update, the company reported elevated error rates and intermittent network failures across multiple services as engineers worked to restore operations.

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Banking Services Hit By The Disruption

Revolut was among the most visibly affected companies, with customers reporting problems with ATM withdrawals, bank transfers and card top-ups. A source close to the matter linked the issues to the Google Cloud outage.

Traditional banks also reported disruptions. Lloyds said some customers were experiencing problems with its app and online banking, while HSBC confirmed difficulties accessing its services. HSBC added that it was monitoring the situation and noted that other organisations were affected as well.

Disruption Spreads Beyond Finance

Downdetector, which tracks online service disruptions, recorded hundreds of reports involving other businesses, including property website Rightmove and the Royal Mail postal service. The reports suggested that the outage was affecting multiple parts of the UK’s digital economy.

The incident highlights the risks facing businesses that depend on shared cloud infrastructure. Even a temporary failure at a single provider can disrupt services across several sectors, from banking and payments to logistics and consumer platforms.

Companies Reassure Customers

Revolut said it had been working to resolve the issue since it was identified and apologised to affected customers. The company also confirmed that customers’ money and data remained safe.

As cloud platforms underpin an increasing share of digital commerce, the outage illustrates how disruptions to critical infrastructure can spread far beyond the provider itself, affecting businesses and customers across the economy.

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