Romania’s retail sales up 12.2% y/y in February as consumer confidence restores

Romania’s retail sales surged by 12.2% y/y in February – the sharpest annual rise since private consumption was still catching up in the post-COVID period (2021), according to data from the statistics office INS.

The non-food sales surged by nearly 20% y/y, witnessing resumed consumer confidence that surfaced in stronger borrowing, among others. The net wages increased by an average rate of around 7.3% y/y in real terms in January-February, after the relatively weaker +4.4% real advance in 2023.

Although the average interest on consumer loans decreased by only 1.4 percentage points (pp) from 14.17% in February 2023 to 12.76% in February 2024, the volume of consumer loans in January-February 2024 (local currency) surged by 63% y/y. The annual growth rate was +69% y/y in February.

The seasonally adjusted sales index edged up by 0.5% m/m after the 4.6% monthly leap seen in January.

All three components of retail sales, namely food, non-food goods, and car fuels, increased at higher annual rates than in January.

Thus, the sales of food goods increased by 7% y/y (+4.6% y/y in January), and the sales of non-food goods accelerated to 19.8% y/y (+12.2% y/y in January), witnessing an outstanding recovery of the consumer sentiment after the inflation made a negative impact on this regard during 2023.

The sales of car fuels also increased faster than in January, by 6.2% y/y (+2.0% y/y in January), although this only brings the seasonally-adjusted sales in line with the average level of 2022 after subdued consumption in 2023.

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