Euro area services output rose 0.8 percent in May, and hotels and restaurants were the only industry in the whole index that shrank

Everything grew except the part of the economy that sells summer.

Eurostat published its services production index for May on Friday morning. Output rose 0.8 percent on April in both the euro area and the European Union, and 2.4 percent against May 2025 in both. April had been plus 0.7 percent. These are first estimates.

The one line going the other way

Accommodation and food services fell 1.0 percent on the month in the euro area and 1.8 percent on the year. Nothing else in the index did that. Real estate activities rose 2.1 percent on the month, professional, scientific and technical activities 1.0 percent, administrative and support services 0.6, information and communication 0.5, and transportation and storage 0.2.

The annual figures put the gap wider still. Information and communication was up 4.6 percent on May 2025 and transportation and storage up 4.4, against accommodation and food services down 1.8.

The release prints the monthly series, and it is worth counting. December through May, euro area accommodation and food services reads plus 0.5, minus 0.9, minus 0.5, minus 0.3, plus 0.2, minus 1.0. That is four falls in six months, in the industry that moves people around and feeds them.

The member states are not moving together

Greece was up 4.5 percent on the month, Latvia 3.8 and Poland 3.0. Hungary was down 3.6, Portugal 2.8 and Denmark 1.3. Germany rose 1.9 percent.

On the year the spread is wider. Bulgaria was up 8.1 percent, Latvia 7.9 and Poland 7.3, while Denmark was down 14.0 percent, Hungary 3.6 and Romania 1.4. Eurostat offers no explanation for the Danish figure and none is offered here.

Ireland and Cyprus are withheld in the country table. The dataset is sts_sepr_m.