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3.9 Real economy - Romania
3.9.1 Retail
Romania’s retail sales index contracted in October 2021 compared to
August by 4.8% in absolute terms and by 1.0% in seasonally adjusted
terms, reversing the gain accumulated in May-August.
The annual growth rate of the retail sales volume eased to 4.0% y/y in
October from 6.8% y/y in September.
Compared to October 2019 (before COVID-19), the retail sales index in
October 2021 was higher by 8.1%, or 4.0% in annualised terms.
In annualised terms compared to October 2019, food sales rose
moderately by 3.7%, sales of non-food goods surged visibly faster by
8.4% and fuel sales contracted by 3.3% under direct and indirect
mobility constraints.
As regards post-lockdown developments, retail sales 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 energy prices
and interest rates.
The outlook was complicated once the new variant of COVID-19
generated more caution as regards 2022, previously seen as the year
of recovery.
105 SE Outlook 2022 www.intellinews.com
