Unilever: Consumers start to budget

Alexandra Gatej (photo), chairman of the FMCG producer Unilever South Central Europe (USCE), with domestic turnover worth over 160 million euros, says there was a slowdown in consumption in the first quarter of this year. “The growth rate stood at under 10%, while last year it was close to 20%. On some markets, there was no growth, while on others it was very low. However, even though this quarter was not spectacular, we are not experiencing a recession,” says Gatej. According to the USCE chairman: “unlike in previous years, the consumer’s monthly budget now includes several kinds of instalment costs, such as education-related and utility payments, which are higher than the same time last year. The depreciation of the national currency and inflation, in the wake of worldwide price increases and global recession, has caused Romanians to become cautious in their consumption habits,” Alexandra Gatej told ZF. On the FMCG market, the slowdown in consumption was felt more strongly for more sophisticated product categories, such as body care products, than for basic products, such as bread, toothpaste and detergent. “Consumers are now budgeting, a situation which few people anticipated last year,” adds Gatej.