German retailer Metro Group’s sales in Eastern Europe grew by 2.9 percent in the first half of this year, reaching EUR 7.9 billion, mainly with the help of the Russian, Turkish and Polish markets. Markets like Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary have a slow comeback from the crisis, according to the most recent financial report of the group.

Metro Cash & Carry, one of its brands, recorded sales of EUR 5.4 billion, up 3.5 percent on the first half of 2010. “While the sales development in Romania and Greece remained impaired by the difficult macroeconomic conditions, like-for-like sales growth in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan was considerable,” according to the report.

In case of Real, sales in Eastern Europe went down by 1.9 percent in H1 of 2011, to EUR 1.4 billion. “The sales development in Romania was impacted by a continuously difficult macroeconomic environment,” according to the group, which hasn’t disclosed the actual sales figures for the country. The full H1 report here (in pdf version).

Metro has 30 Metro Cash & Carry stores in Romania and 25 Real stores. The group posted sales of EUR 1.8 billion last year in Romania, down 3.5 percent on the previous year.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Metro Group)