Romanian consumers buying less for more

The consumer goods market put at 22 billion euros in 2009, fell by about 6% in value and by almost 15% in volume in the first ten months of the year, compared with the same time of last year, reveals a survey of market search company MEMRB. The decline in volume is more than double the decline in value because prices went up, with the yearly inflation in October standing at 7.9%, the highest in the entire EU. Whereas decline was spread across all segments of traditional retail, in modern retail’s case the food segment saw a slight increase and less serious decline everywhere else. “We believe there is a shift of volumes from traditional to modern retail, which is the cause for this trend,” said Andreea Budau, senior account executive with MEMRB.