The retail sales volume rose in Romania by 8.1% in May compared to the same month last year (YoY), marking the highest annual growth rate in eight months despite the consumer prices having reached 14.5% YoY, putting pressure on households’ real incomes.

The food sales rose by 7.0% YoY, the non-food sales by 8.2% YoY, while the sales of car fuels advanced by 9.7% YoY in volume terms, not touched by the record 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.

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

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

As of March, 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).

(Photo: Keechuan/ Dreamstime)

iulian@romania-insider.com