Romania was the country the most affected by the crisis last year, with the pessimism of local consumers placing it on the last spot in Europe in a recent GfK study on consumption in 2010.

Consumers in Romania and Greece were most affected by the effects of the financial crisis and by the high level of debt their countries recorded. Romanians and Greeks had negative expectations for their revenues in 2010, which affected their spending. On the other side of the ranking, German consumers were the most optimistic, found the GfK study.

“There are signs that 2011 will also be a difficult year, with low revenues and with a level of pessimism above the European average,” said Andi Dumitrescu, general manager of GfK Romania.

Elsewhere in Europe, for example in Germany, the retail segment has started to return on the positive side. Meanwhile, French still fear their life standard will decline, while Italians have started to cut consumption. The real estate crisis affected Spain last year, but somewhere closer on the map, Poland saw economic increase- a GDP growth of 3.5 percent in 2010.

editor@romania-insider.com