The automotive industry, electronics and home appliances retail and the construction materials market, fields that last year totalled 13bn euros, that is over 10% in GDP, have been among the hardest hit by the financial crisis this year. On the three markets, sales dropped by margins ranging between 30% and 55%, a decline that wiped out around 5.5bn euros from consumer spending.

The Romanian electronics and electrical home appliances market this year contracted by almost half a billion euros, falling from 1.2-1.3bn euros in late 2008 to around 800m euros in 2009. The largest part of the 500m-euro loss of the market was located at the level of specialised retailers, whose sales are set to go down by 300m euros by yearend, according to announced business plans.

The auto market in 2009 suffered the steepest decline of the past 20 years. After ten years of consecutive two-digit increases, car sales this year posted drops of as much as 60%, to a volume of 130,000 units, similar to the level of 2003 market. Sales of cars and commercial vehicles are put at 2bn euros this year, down 3.5bn euros from last year, according to ZF estimates. The overall car market shrank by 55%, to 147,000 units this year.

The construction materials market dropped by 27.2% in the first 11 months of the year from the similar period of 2008, with sales of thermo-insulating carpentry, cement and masonry materials as the hardest hit. In this context, the Association of Romania's Construction Materials Producers (APMCR) expects the market to reach 5-5.2bn euros this year, down 23% from 2008.

"For 2009, we project a value of 3.8-3.9bn euros of turnover on the construction materials market, without taking into account imports. These are put at 1.2-1.3bn euros, resulting in a market of 5.0-5.2bn euros. Compared with the market of 2008, which we put at 6.5bn euros, we're witn