Romanian to expects slow income growth

According to the latest GfK study about Consumer Climate, Romania anticipates a slow income growth (1.6 percent) due to the results of local elections and the promises of local politicians. Furthermore, this positive path is sustained by the World Bank, which foresees a 1.2 percent growth of national’s economy. Despite the European economical and financial crisis, Romania continues to improve: if in March the economic indicator was -26.2 points, in June it rose to -2.6 points, reaching the highest value since November 2008.

The survey involved respondents from 12 countries, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, UK, Czech Republic, Romania and Spain, which comprises almost 80 percent of European Union’s population, carried out for European Commission.

Regarding the consumption behaviors, Romanians are still carefully spending their money on major goods, although the situation seems stable. The same study also reveals the fact that Romaniais one of the European countries with the lowest unemployment rate.

The European Union’s mean value for the perspective of economical recovery is -35 points. This indicator is considered less favorable by consumers from Italy (- 60.2 points) and Czech Republic (-57.1 points), while France (-8.1 points), Romania (-2.6 points) and Germany (3.0 points) registered the highest values.

Concerning the income evolution in these European countries, the indicator for Romania is now positive, with 1.6 points, while the European Union’s income mean value is -43 points and countries such as Portugal (-33.7 points), Greece (-48.0 points) and Italy (-68.0 points) recorded the highest negative values.

In this GfK survey, one of the surprising conclusions was that the majority of the European countries have the purchase demand on a low or very low level although on the past two months several improvements were made. The consumers are also concerned about the rising taxes as part of the consolidation measurements on European level. The lowest purchase demand is found in countries like UK (-42.3 points), Portugal (-43.2 points) and Greece (-45.2 points). On the contrary, the most willing consumers come from Bulgaria (8.5 points), Austria (22.4 points) and Germany (32.7 points).

More about this report can be found on GfK webpage, content in Romanian language only.