GfK: Technical consumer goods make EUR 266 mln market, sales decrease slows down

The Romanian technical consumer goods market has slowed down its decrease in the second quarter of the year, with sales only 15 percent lower compared to the same period of last year, found a monitoring by GfK. However, the value of this market segment was slightly lower compared to the first quarter and the negative tendency could continue, if we take into account the VAT increase from July 1st. The total value of the technical consumer goods was of EUR 266 million. The IT and telecom sectors have dropped, while home appliances and photo cameras have sold similarly to the second quarter in 2009. The World Cup triggered a double digit increase in sales for TV sets in June this year, compared to last year, but the impact of the event was lower than the European Football Cup's in 2008. The news about the VAT increase also contributed to the increase in sales for TV in the last weeks of June. Electronic equipments made a EUR 55 million market, while large home appliances posted sales of EUR 70 million, down 13.6 percent on the second quarter of 2009. Office supplies made only a EUR 7 million market – a drop of 28.9 percent. Telecom sales reached EUR 39 million, down 28.5 compared to the second quarter of 2009. The IT sector dropped by 20.5 percent, to EUR 69 million, with notebooks staying the best sold products.