Romania: No. 1 retail market in Eastern Europe
Recent data by Eurostat shows the situation of each European country’s retail market, with impressive results from the Romanian market.
According to data for April 2017, Romania ranked no. 1 as the country with the best retail trade growth in Eastern Europe. Overall, the Easter European country ranked 5 out of all the countries in the European Union. Compared with 2016’s April results, the best progress was made by Luxembourg, with 11,3 points growth, followed by Slovenia (10,4), Ireland (8,4) and Slovakia (7,1). Romania officially did best among Eastern Europe’s countries, with a growth of 5,6 points compared to April 2016. Belgium recorded the only decrease (of minus 0,8 points). Overall, the EU recorded a growth of 0,5 among its 28 member-countries.
Also, the European Union benefited from an increase of 0,4 points in non-food products, food, beverages and cigarettes sales increased by 0,6 points and fuel retail by 0,3 points. Romania did better in March than in April of 2017, by 0,2 points. Furthermore, March was an even better month than February, with a 0,8 increase.
On a similar note, Romania could also be the best country in the Balkan region, based on its gross domestic product. Data shows that Romania’s GDP, in the first trimester of this year, was 44,2 billion EUR, with an overall 5,7% increase in the country’s economy. Statistics also indicate that Romania’s GDP could actually surpass those of Greece, Portugal and the Czech Republic. These countries ranked higher than Romania, in 2016, with a GDP of 175,9 billion EUR, 184,9 billion EUR and 174,4 billion EUR, respectively. By the end of 2017, Romania’s GDP could reach 182,8 billion EUR, with a further substantial increase by 2020 taking it to around 229,4 billion EUR.
