Retailers in Spain and France have registered increases in sales in September and October respectively, according to the latest figures.
In Spain, data from INE, the national statistical office, showed that sales were up 8.5 per cent for the retail sector as a whole compared to September 2001, but were nonetheless down 4.2 per cent compared to August.
However, the increase was driven primarily by sales of non-food items, which rose by 12 per cent compared to August and by 12.2 per cent compared to September 2001.
Food sales, on the other hand, dropped by 5.4 per cent compared to August but were nonetheless 4.4 per cent higher than in September 2001.
Sales from large stores - such as hypermarkets - were up 12.5 per cent year-on-year, but were down 8.6 per cent on a monthly basis, with both food and non-food sales declining compared to August (by 12.5 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively).
Year-on-year sales were higher, however, with food sales ahead 9.7 per cent and non-food up 15 per cent.
Meanwhile, figures from France's FCD (the country's retail industry association) show that hypermarket sales rose 4.4 per cent and supermarket sales rose 3.3 per cent during October compared to the same month a year earlier.
The FCD stressed that the increases were on a like-for-like basis and did not include new stores.
The association said that the increase was due to a month of promotional offers and marketing activity from most of the country's leading retail chains, with non-food offerings (perfume, clothing, multimedia, pharmaceutical products) in particular showing good growth.
There was also a strong increase in sales of fish and seafood and bakery products.
For the first ten months of the year, the FCD said that hypermarket sales were ahead 1.2 per cent compared to 2001, while supermarket sales were up 2.3 per cent.
The FCD also released figures for convenience store sales in September, which were 0.5 per cent higher compared to the same month in 2001 and 2.4 per cent up on a year-to-date basis.