Consumer Trends in 2007

Martie 2008

RALUCA RASCHIP - Consumer Tracking Director GFK ROMANIA

The first “European” year of Romania brought a more dynamic and more competitive enviroment, for both Fast Moving Consumer Goods market and Retail scene.

After the huge increase of consumption by 25% experienced in 2005 and another 10% in 2006, we have registered a growth of 17% in national currency for the FMCG expenditures in 2007, significantly higher than a year before.

The most important driver of the consumption growth was the increase of the basket size of the Romanians when going shopping, meanwhile the buying frequency has continued the slight downward trend.

The influence of the modern trade is even more visible in this respect, as people are going shopping in the traditional trade less frequently than before, but somehow by 40% more often in Hypermarkets. As a result, the Romanian families went at least every two weeks on average to Hypermarkets to do their regular FMCG shoppings.

Similar to the situation of the previous years, the personal care products (deodorants, shampoo, shaving products, skin care, hair colouring etc.) and the ones for household cleaning (detergents, fabric softeners, water softeners, toilet cleaners etc.) have been the most dynamic market segment of +20% versus the previous year, overtaking the growth of the food and drinks segment by 4%. The latter segment is mainly represented by yoghurts, sana and kefir, canned vegetables, liver pate, semi-hard cheese, processed cheese, cream cheese, carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks, mineral water and other categories, segment which has developed in total by 16%.

1

2

The tricky lag LUCIAN CROITORU Adviser to the Governor - BANCA NAŢIONALĂ A ROMÂNIEI Lucian Croitoru, Adviser on monetary policy issues to the National Bank of Romania Governor, talks about the NBR’s next moves and explains why the decrease ofthe policy rate hasn’t been reflected into lower interest rates on bank loans. mai mult... The turnaround CRISTIAN SPORIS Secretar de Stat - MINISTERUL ECONOMIEI ŞI FINANŢELOR Cristian Sporis, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Finance, in charge with the national treasury and public debt, explains how the state managed to borrow money at the lowest costs in the last seven years and how it turned from a clear market taker into a player with a strong position on the market. mai mult...