COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has clearly revealed the big structural differences between the economies in the Northern Europe and those in the Southern Europe.
So, countries in the Northern Europe showed increases in retail sales volumes in 2020 from 2019, while those in the Southern Europe recorded quite large decreases. Central European countries were in the middle, having almost flat retail sales dynamics in 2020.
Tourism and hospitality economic activities are quite important in South-European countries and they were severely hit by COVID-19 outbreak.
