In January, the retail sector in Romania experienced its quickest growth in ten months, largely on the back of rising sales of non-food items, according to the data from the National Institute of Statistics that was released on Wednesday.
The retail sales growth, which was adjusted for working days, surged by 5.1 percent year on year in January. This was significantly faster than the 1.4 percent increase registered in December.
Moreover, this marked the quickest growth pace since March 2023, when the sales growth was at 6.0 percent.
In January, the highest increase was seen in the sales of non-food products, which grew by 9.2 percent on the year.
There was also a surge in the demand for food products, which climbed 2.4 percent annually. Additionally, sales of automotive fuel in specialized stores marked an increase of 1.1 percent.
On a monthly comparison level, retail sales bounced back robustly with a 3.8 percent growth in January, after witnessing a slight decline of 0.4 percent in the previous month.
In unadjusted terms, the annual retail sales saw an increase of 6.6 percent, even as they dropped sharply by 17.2 percent from the previous month.
