Romania’s retail trade turnover, which is considered the most important indicator of household consumption, increased by 14% in May of this year compared to the same month of 2016, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INS).

The figures don’t include the sales of motor vehicles and motorcycles.

The growth is triple that of April and comes from an increase in the sales of non-food items, which went up 15.4% in May 2017 compared to May 2016. Food sales went up 13.3% compared to May 2016, while fuel sales grew by 12.7%.

Fuels have gotten cheaper since the beginning of the year after the extra excise on fuel of 7 euro cents per liter was removed and the VAT rate went down from 20% to 19%.

In the last two years, Government measures, including tax cuts and wage increases in the public sector have stimulated retail sales. The turnover in the retail trade went up by 13.5% in 2016 compared to the previous year. It was the highest growth rate after 2007. In 2015, the retail trade turnover rose by 8.9% compared to the previous year, after an advance of 7% in 2014.

editor@romania-insider.com