Romanian consumers’ willingness to buy reaches 2008 level

The willingness to buy among Romanian consumers has increased significantly in the first three months, reaching the highest level since September 2008 when the financial crisis started.

The indicator that reflects the local consumers desire to buy increased by 11 points between December 2015 and March 2016, reaching a positive level of 4 points, according to market research company GfK.

“The Government’s decision to reduce the VAT rate by 4 percentage points starting January 1, 2016, has likely contributed to this result. However, local consumers are still far from the moment when they will spend their money on more expensive products and services as most of them still barely have enough money to cover their day to day needs,” according to GfK.

Romanian consumers are also more optimistic about the evolution of their revenues, compared to the end of last year, despite their lower expectations related to the economy’s evolution as a whole.