Sales by traders rise 24% in February

The amount of turnover generated by mainly industrial companies in February shrank by almost four percentage points, when compared with the same month last year.

However, firms specialising in trade (excluding car companies) achieved a 23.5% growth in sales compared with February 2004. This shows that imports are still the main driving force behind consumption.

Industrial output in February was 3.2% higher than for the same month last year, boosting this index by 5.8% for the first two months of the year, when compared with the same period of 2004.

Turnover made by companies in the industrial sector in the first two months of the year rose by a mere 0.1%, as compared with the corresponding period of last year, while the sales by commercial companies rose 18.3% on 2004, according to data released by the National Statistics Institute.

There was spectacular growth in the first two months of the year for companies in the trade and car maintenance sector, with turnover 36.4% higher than for the corresponding period of 2004. Car sales in late February exceeded 32,000 units, being worth over 350 million euros.

Significant increases were also seen in food trade, with turnover for the first two months generated by firms in this segment 22.3% up on the same period in 2003. For the February 2005-February 2004 comparison, turnover in the food trade sector was 21.6% higher.

The non-food sector also logged higher sales in February – 21.6% compared with the same month of the previous year, with growth in the first two months of the year of 15.8% from the reporting period of 2004.

However, trade was the only economic field that managed to post positive results in February. Firms in the industrial sector were not alone in reporting lower turnover: the same was true for services, where turnover for the first two months of the year was 9.5% lower that for the same period last year. In February, companies specialised in services reported 21.3% lower turnover by comparison with February 2004.

February was not a good month for builders either, with companies reporting a 10.3% lower value of works, as compared with the level seen last February.

Things might improve in this sector, as more than 1,660 permits for residential buildings were released in February, 9.9% more than in the corresponding month of last year. miruna.lebedencu@zf.ro