Household consumption goes down by 4 percent in the first half of 2010

Household consumption has gone done by 4 percent in the first half of this year, compared to the similar period of 2009, and calculated in the national currency, a GfK study has found.

“It is the first decline registered in the last ten years, a period when yearly growth rates varied between 7 and 25 percent. In the current unfriendly economic and political context, visitors have skipped on store visits, supermarkets being the most affected,” explains Raluca Raschip, consumer tracking director with GfK Romania.

Personal care products and home cleaning products were the most affected by the downturn, with 7 percent and 4 percent less being spent on them. The largest drop in volume sales were on the deodorant sales (down 21 percent), universal cleaning products (down 19 percent), chocolate (down 18 percent).

In the first six months of the year, modern retail attracted 45 percent of the household expenses for fast moving consumer goods, compared to 43 percent in the similar period of 2009. The most dynamic formats are discount stress, which register a growth arte of 11 percent, while supermarkets are on a downward trend, down 9 percent in value compared to the first half of 2009.

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