Romania’s retail trade turnover, except for the sale of motor vehicles and motorcycles, increased by 18.4% in the first five months of the year over the same period in 2015, driven by the growth of food, tobacco and beverage sales, according to the National Statistics Institute (INS).

The sales of food, beverages and tobacco went up by 26.5% during this period, compared to the first five months of 2015. The sales of non-food products rose by 16.3% year-on-year whereas the fuel sales increased by 9.9% year-on-year.

In May, the turnover of retail trade dropped by 4.7% compared to April, mainly influenced by the decrease in the sales of food, beverages and tobacco.

The year-on-year growth in May decelerated to 15.8%. However, Romania still had the highest retail sales growth in the EU, according to Eurostat.

editor@romania-insider.com