The retail sales volume index increased by 5.0% in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period of 2021, according to data reported by Romania's statistics office INS.

The annual growth rate eased slightly from the 5.4%-5.5% YoY advance during the previous two quarters but remained robust.

The food sales increased by 2.2% YoY in Q1, non-food sales by 5.1% YoY and the sales of fuels by 9.4% YoY.

The seasonally-adjusted sales index rose by 2.9% compared to the first quarter of the year (QoQ) after more moderate quarterly advance rates of 0.5%-1.0pp during the previous three quarters.

The sales of food and non-food goods increased robustly by 3.0% QoQ and 2.5% QoQ respectively, while the sales of fuels decreased by 1.6% QoQ.

In June alone, the retail sales were less buoyant: they decreased by 2.1% compared to May (in seasonally adjusted terms), and the annual growth rate eased to 3.2% YoY.

This is in line with expectations of subdued private consumption under the impact of rising interest rates and real disposable incomes.

"Let's see if it's something temporary or if the trend continues. I don't think we can interpret June separately. We would have expected to see a deterioration in consumption in March when Russia's war in Ukraine began, but this did not happen. The data as a whole, for the first semester, the data look good," Ionuț Dumitru, chief economist of Raiffeisen Bank, commented, quoted by Cursdeguvernare.ro.

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iulian@romania-insider.com