The retail sales index, which reflects the volume of retail sales expressed in comparable prices, has contracted in October compared to August by 4.8% in absolute terms and by 1.0% in seasonally adjusted terms - reversing the gain accumulated since May, according to data released by the statistics office INS.

The annual growth rate of the retail sales volume has eased to 4.0% YoY in October from 6.8% YoY in September.

Compared to October 2019 (before Covid-19), the increase was 8.1% or 4.0% in annualised terms.

In annualised terms compared to October 2019, the food sales rose moderately by 3.7%, the sales of non-food goods surged visibly faster by 8.4% and the fuel sales contracted by 3.3% under direct and indirect mobility constraints.

As regards post-lockdown developments, the retail sales have recovered robustly from the weak performances during the first stages of the pandemic until May this year.

The propensity for consumption was meanwhile depressed by a multitude of factors, including slower nominal wage growth, rising inflation, negative expectations, particularly in regard to the energy prices and the interest rates.

The outlook complicated once the new variant of Covid-19 poured more caution as regards 2022, previously seen as “the year of recovery.” 

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iulian@romania-insider.com