Romania’s retail sales volume index increased by 9.3% y/y in the first quarter of 2014 after an outstanding 13.6% y/y expansion in March, the statistics office reported. The workday- and seasonally-adjusted sales index surged by 5.2% q/q in Jan-Mar, thus marking the third consecutive quarterly positive performance.
The sales of non-food items performed above the average in both the first quarter and in March alone, while the sales of food items lagged behind the average. Thus, the non-food sales expanded by 13.1% y/y in full Q1 and by 16% y/y in March alone. Their performance was already remarkable in 2013.
As a result, the non-food retail sales index, seasonally- and workday-adjusted was in Q1 only 0.5% below the peak pre-crisis level reached in Q2 2008, while the overall retail sales still lag a significant 9.2% below the peak level. Particularly the food sales were 13.6% below the Q2 2008 level, while the sales of car fuels were 15.2% lower.
The retail sales performed impressively in March, partly helped by the car fuel excise hike as of April 1 that pushed up fuel sales by 17.4% in March.
| Retail sales volume index | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | Q1-14 | Mar-14 |
| Total | -9.7% | -6.6% | -2.0% | 2.9% | 0.5% | 9.3% | 13.6% |
| Total, swda* q/q, m/m | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | 5.2% | 2.3% |
| A. Food stores | -3.8% | -9.6% | -6.8% | 2.4% | -0.1% | 6.1% | 8.1% |
| B. Non-food stores | -8.1% | -9.0% | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3.6% | 13.1% | 16.0% |
| C. Car fuel | -19.7% | 3.3% | -1.6% | 6.2% | -3.6% | 7.1% | 17.4% |
| Source: INS, *seasonally and workday adjusted | |||||||
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