Spending by Ukrainian refugees helps push up Romania's retail sales in May

Spending by Ukrainian refugees helps push up Romania's retail sales in May
By bne IntelliNews July 7, 2022

The retail sales volume rose in Romania by 8.1% y/y in May, marking the highest annual growth rate in eight months despite the consumer prices having reached 14.5% y/y in the month and putting pressure on households’ real incomes.

Additional consumption generated by the refugees from Ukraine, as well as households front-loading planned expenditures before the price rises, resulted in robust sales that are not helping price stability.

Food sales rose by 7.0% y/y and non-food sales by 8.2% y/y while sales of car fuels advanced by 9.7% y/y in volume terms — not touched by the record fuel prices.

One of the factors driving the non-food sales may be the households opting to “invest” their money in goods expected to cost more in the coming months (front-loading planned expenditures). This is only relevant for non-food sales, though. 

Another driver for the robust retail sales is the supplementary consumption generated by the refugees from Ukraine: around 100,000 have remained in the country out of the 1.3mn that entered Romania since the beginning of the war.

Separately, sales of car fuels and food are not that high in absolute terms historically: they still remain close to the pre-crisis levels, while real incomes, despite the record inflation recently, have advanced.

As of March this year, the average net wage was 9.4% higher compared to March 2019 in real terms (meaning despite the 17% rise in consumer prices over the past three years).

Read in IntelliNews Pro
Get IntelliNews Pro

Related Content

Retail sales in Romania slightly stronger in October

COP28: A week in, and fossil fuels and finance dominate

International banking groups mull expansion in CEE region

Data

Dragon Capital halves Ukraine’s 2024 GDP forecast to 4% in anticipation of another year of war

Ukraine’s leading investment bank Dragon Capital has cut its GDP forecast for Ukraine in 2024 in half to 4% y/y in anticipation of another year of war, The New Voice of Ukraine reported on December 7.

Czech industry increased by 1.9% y/y in October

Czech industrial production increased by 1.9% year on year and by 2.8% month on month in October. The October increase follows a 5% slump registered in September, which alarmed local analysts.

Turkey’s net reserves recover to minus $57bn

Since 2018, economy has carried risk of severe balance of payments crisis. For the removal of that risk, the central bank’s net in and off-balance sheet FX position should at least turn positive.

Hungarian retail sales fall for 11th straight month in October

Decline of 6.5% y/y is second worst in EU.

Retail sales in Romania slightly stronger in October

Retail sales rose by 0.9% m/m in October, recouping the losses incurred over the previous three months.

Dragon Capital halves Ukraine’s 2024 GDP forecast to 4% in anticipation of another year of war
1 hour ago
Czech industry increased by 1.9% y/y in October
2 hours ago
Turkey’s net reserves recover to minus $57bn
18 hours ago
Hungarian retail sales fall for 11th straight month in October
1 day ago
Retail sales in Romania slightly stronger in October
1 day ago

Follow Us On

Most Read

  1. LONG READ: The boomerang effect: sanctions hurt Europe more than Russia
    6 days ago
  2. Putin's approval rating up to 85% in November, Russians happy with the country's direction
    4 days ago
  3. Oil continues to flow to Israel via Turkey despite Erdogan’s vehement speeches on plight of Gaza
    1 month ago
  4. Top Ukrainian politician David Arakhamia gives seventh confirmation of Russia-Ukraine peace deal agreed in March 2022
    11 days ago
  5. Former Kazakh leader Nazarbayev confesses to polygamy with Miss Kazakhstan 1999
    2 days ago
  1. Oil continues to flow to Israel via Turkey despite Erdogan’s vehement speeches on plight of Gaza
    1 month ago
  2. Top Ukrainian politician David Arakhamia gives seventh confirmation of Russia-Ukraine peace deal agreed in March 2022
    11 days ago
  3. Russia overtakes Germany to become fifth biggest economy in the world in GDP on a PPP basis
    4 months ago
  4. Armenia marks new era with French military purchases
    10 days ago
  5. Lavrov confirms Ukraine war peace deal reached last April, but then abandoned
    2 months ago

Reports

SELECT `n`.`nid` AS `id`, `n`.`title`, 'bne IntelliNews' AS authors, 'bne IntelliNews' AS bylines, `wc`.`field_website_callout_value` AS `summary`, `smc`.`field_social_media_callout_value` AS `social`, `pd`.`published_at` AS `date`, `p`.`field_publication__tid` AS `publication_id`, `fm`.`uri` AS `image`, `fspcaption`.`field_story_photo_caption_value` AS `image_credit`, `fspcredit`.`field_story_photo_credit_value` AS `image_author`, `ws`.`field_website_sections_tid` AS `section_id`, `fdfs`.`field_subject_tid` AS `subject_id`, `db`.`body_value` AS `body`, `fm2`.`uri` AS `pdf`, `et`.`field_enable_tracking_value` AS `tracking`, `ht`.`field_head_tags_value` AS `headTags`, `bt`.`field_body_tags_value` AS `bodyTags` FROM `node` AS `n` LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_website_callout` AS `wc` ON wc.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_social_media_callout` AS `smc` ON smc.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `publication_date` AS `pd` ON pd.nid = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_publication_` AS `p` ON p.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_story_picture` AS `sp` ON sp.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `file_managed` AS `fm` ON fm.fid = sp.field_story_picture_fid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_story_photo_caption` AS `fspcaption` ON fspcaption.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_story_photo_credit` AS `fspcredit` ON fspcredit.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `workflow_node` AS `wn` ON wn.nid = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_website_sections` AS `ws` ON ws.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_subject` AS `fdfs` ON fdfs.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_body` AS `db` ON db.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_file` AS `ff` ON ff.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `file_managed` AS `fm2` ON fm2.fid = ff.field_file_fid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_enable_tracking` AS `et` ON et.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_head_tags` AS `ht` ON ht.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_body_tags` AS `bt` ON bt.entity_id = n.nid WHERE (n.status = 1) AND (n.type = 'article') AND (n.nid = 249843) AND (wn.sid= 3) AND (p.field_publication__tid IN (2465,2851,3184,3159,3266,3264,3270,3265,3267,3268,3269,3171,3168,3185,3170,1346,1345,3180,3175,3254,3249,1207,1208,3181,3231,3177,3186,3178,1003,3187,2975,3204,3198,3188,3202,3196,3250,3189,3160,3161,3312,3313,3173,3314,3315,3167,3259,3257,3263,3258,3260,3261,3262,3174,3316,3165,3192,3163,3282,3190,2811,3256,3317,3162,3318,3191,3297,3182,3179,3166,3319,3376,3320,3172,3255,3169,1008,3203,3197,3321,3252,3164,1307,3322,3183,3220,3176,3201,3323,1327,1020,1006,1009,1013,1014,1018,1005,1328,1010,1011,1002,1012,1311,1330,1017,1016,1019,1004,1001,1334,1335,1336,1015,1337,1338,1339,1340,1341,2496,2501,2517,2529,2506,2505,2524,2513,2526,2537,2489,2490,2520,2536,2488,2532,2500,2515,2503,2493,2527,2523,2510,2525,2498,2499,2528,2507,2487,2511,2521,2502,2491,2519,2497,2492,2514,2495,2509,2512,1629,3358)) LIMIT 1
Dismiss