April 5 (SeeNews) - Romania's retail sales grew by an annual 16.9% on the year in the first two months of 2016, the statistics office, INS, said on Tuesday.
The figures are seasonally and working-day adjusted, INS said in a statement.
Based on unadjusted data, retail sales climbed 18.7% on the year in the first two months of the year.
Also on an unadjusted basis, food sales rose 29.3%, non-food sales climbed 15.7% and sales of fuels were up 7.2% compared to Jan-Feb 2015.
The figures do not include trade with motor vehicles and motorcycles.
Romania's retail sales rose by 8.9% on the year in 2015.
Details follow (year-on-year pct change ):
|
Jan-Feb '16 |
Feb '16 |
Retail sales |
+16.9 |
+18.4 |
- Food sales |
+26.2 |
+26.3 |
- Non-food sales |
13.9 |
+17.0 |
- Fuels |
+7.8 |
+9.7 |
* based on seasonally-adjusted data.
Commenting on the retail data, Banca Transilvania analysts said they see private consumption increasing by an average annual pace of 6% in 2016, 5.7% in 2017 and 4.9% in 2018.
The increase is backed by a growth in people's real disposable incomes, recovery of lending in the local currency, low international prices of crude oil, improved supply of food and agricultural products, a more active fiscalization and the increasing migration of human capital, the analysts added.
For their part, ING Bank analysts said that a more accurate reporting from retailers on non-food items following the VAT cut is likely behind the 17% year-on-year acceleration in the category.
"Nevertheless, the figure reflects strong domestic demand and should further contribute to trade balance deterioration and keep underlying inflation ex-tax cuts elevated," they added.
Further on, Raiffeisen Bank analysts commented in their daily market report that the advance of retail sales in February is another evidence pointing to a sound development of private consumption in the first quarter.