Romania on the fourth place in EU on retail growth in February

Romania recorded the fourth largest growth on the retail segment in the European Union in February, behind Slovenia (which was first), Luxembourg and Lithuania, compared with the same period of 2016, shows the data of the European Office of Statistics (Eurostat).

In the Euro zone, the retail sector went up by 1.8 percent on annual rate, while the EU registered an increase by 2.2 percent. The retail in EU 28 was influenced by the sales in non-food products that climbed by 3.4 percent. The sales of fuels went up by 1 percent, while the sales in food, tobacco and beverages gained 0.9 percent.

The highest increases were registered in Slovenia (16.8 percent), Luxembourg (12.9 percent), Lithuania (7.6 percent) and Romania (7.5 percent), the only decreases being registered in Belgium (-3.2 percent), Malta (-0.9 percent) and Denmark (-0.2 percent).

In February 2017, the retail segment went up by 0.7 percent in Euro zone and EU28 compared with January, when an increase of 0.1 percent in Euro zone and 0.2 percent in the EU was recorded. The retail in EU 28 was also influenced by the fact that non-food products sales went up by 1.1 percent, the fuel sales went up by 0.7 percent, while the food, beverages and tobacco sales increased by 0.5 percent.

The highest increases were in Portugal, Croatia and Slovenia, while the most significant decline was in Malta, Latvia and Belgium.