BUCHAREST (Romania), September 1 (SeeNews) – The Romanian furniture market shrank by an annual 26.2% to 584.5 million euro ($836.7 million) in the first half of this year as output, exports and imports all fell, the Romanian Furniture Makers’ Association, APMR, said on Tuesday.
Furniture output fell by 18.3% on the year to 767.8 million euro in the first six months, exports were down 17.4% to 492.3 million euro, while imports contracted by 35.4% on the year to 155.7 million euro, APMR said in a statement.
The workforce in the sector fell by 22.3% on the year to 56,800 over the review period.
The market began to suffer back in November last year when the companies started to run into crisis-related setbacks like lower demand both at home and abroad, higher interest rates on credits, and lack of liquidity, APMR said.
The furniture market of EU member Romania fell 4.5% to 1.12 billion euro in 2008. The main export markets for Romanian furniture makers are France, Germany, Italy and the UK, APMR data showed.
($=0.6986 euro)