Even though Romania has the lowest wages in Europe, we have the most alert rhythm of consume.
Romania recorded the highest yearly increase, of 16.2%, of the retail commerce among the European Union members, according to a study released by the European office for statistics, Eurostat. By comparison, sales recorded by the supermarket chains in the European Union increased with only 0.4%.
Romanians have the lowest incomes in the European Union. Specialists consider that this behaviour is not a paradox, after decades of privations. The tendency of accelerated consume will continue, said the specialists.
The Eurostat research was made for March 2008, and the difference is by comparison with informations recorded at the same period in 2007. Romania is followed in the top by Slovakia, at a margin of almost 6%, and by Lithuania and Bulgaria.
In April the difference was even larger. At Easter, sales recorded by the retail chains increased with 50%. A report about individual products sales made by the National Institute of Statistics will be released today.
Europeans buy more books
In the Eu, the largest falls were registered for food and drinks sales (-1%) and clothes (-1.4%), fact explained by the tendency of buying cheaper products, compared to the previous years. On the other hand, Europeans buy more books. The sales in this sector increased with 4.2% in March. RUSH FOR SUPERMARKETS How do specialists explain it
Daniael Daianu, economist. "In the US, consume dropped, it didn't just decrease. The series of price raises force Europeans to be more cautious. Instead of buying an expensive bread, for example, they preffer a cheaper one, and products that were used every day in the past, are considered luxuries. In Romania, the consume is growing rapidly - fact shown by the dynamics of the banking credits, even if we have the lowes wages in Europe. But, I beleive that soon the tendency will slow down."
Marius Pieleanu, sociologist. "Until now, consume in Romania was under the level recorded in the European Union. So, I don't think that we made an important progress or that they recorded a regress. We were just to far from the European standard. On the other hand, it is also true that, now, we afford to buy more. Especially in urban areas, shopping availability has increased."
Eugen Hriscu, psychiatrist. "After decades of privations, Romanians want to compensate for all the shortages thay had endured before '89 .The relative welfare is a recent phenomenon, I think it appeared five years ago, because Romanians had a hard life after '90 also."