The revival of consumption, the signal all managers in a sector worth over 21 billion euros per year are waiting for, seems an increasingly unlikely scenario, after a 2010 in which the decline in food, drinks and non-food sales amounted to as much as 14% in volume, with the year also seeing the first decline in value in six years (-4.2%), according to data of market research company MEMRB.
The MEMRB study is the first conducted by a research company and released on the market this year, with the first official data on turnover in commerce being supplied a week ago by the National Statistics Institute, with the data pointing to a 5.3% decline last year against 2009.
Exports and industry were revived, but Romanians' pessimism, the salaries cut by 25% in the state sector, the VAT rise to 24%, the unemployment, as well as the private sector redundancies deepened the decline of the fast moving consumer goods market last year and failed to create the conditions for a rebound.
"Things have worsened on a general level. Consumption fell in 2009 against 2008, and the decline deepened in 2010," said Marius Căluian, general manager of MEMRB Romania and the Republic of Moldova.
According to the MEMRB study, which analyses the progression of 71 categories of fast-moving consumer goods (cigarettes excluded), only 13 of them saw a rise in 2010, while 58 categories were on the decline (80% of the total).
The revival of consumption, the signal all managers in a sector worth over 21 billion euros per year are waiting for, seems an increasingly unlikely scenario, after a 2010 in which the decline in food, drinks and non-food sales amounted to as much as 14% in volume, with the year also seeing the first decline in value in six years (-4.2%), according to data of market research company MEMRB.
The MEMRB study is the first conducted by a research c
