Romanians continued to buy long term consumer goods last year, despite the bleak economic times, fueling a growth of 12.8 percent on this market segment, to some EUR 1.4 billion, according to a recent study by GfK. The growth was even higher in the fourth quarter of 2011 - some 15.6 percent, backed by better sales in office and IT equipment, small home appliances and telecom equipment, where sales went up by around 20 percent.

The IT sector was last year's best performer, with a growth in sales of 25.5 percent. Romanians seemed to regain lost confidence and bought more long-term use products, backing up a revival in sales on almost all segments.

Sales of long term consumer products stood at EUR 465 million in the last quarter of 2011, higher quarter-on-quarter, but under the peak level of EUR 742 million, recorded in the last quarter of 2008. Immediately after, in the first three months of 2009, the market plunged, to EUR 361 million.

The office equipment segment continued to grow, to some EUR 10 million in the last three months of 2011. Companies remained cautious, but slowly started to unfreeze their budget and invest in office equipment.

On the broader IT segment, laptops still made up half of sales, but tablets became increasingly attractive to buyers. Romanians bought EUR 108 million of small home appliances last year, with coffee makers and cooking equipment particularly popular. But consumers stayed on the price cautious side: half the purchases of small home appliances were under a EUR 50 per acquisition budget.

Sales of photo equipment were also among the growth engines last year, with some EUR 46 million and an increase in sales of 17.4 percent.

editor@romania-insider.com