Retail sales up almost 15%, IT&C among top rates with 20% and steadying

Romanian retail sales keep strong momentum, accelerating to a whopping 14.9% rate year on year (YoY) in January 2016, after a 1.9% monthly expansion, coming from 14.2% YoY in December 2015 (upwardly revised from 13.0%), as fuel sales surged, says an ING report.

"There have been some significant backward data revisions, with 2015 retail sales now looking better for the whole year, particularly in the second semester. Meanwhile, 2016's start was solid for retail after fuel sales jumped by a whopping 7% monthly in January 2016, as prices went down both due to the cheaper crude and the 4 points headline VAT cut. This helped take the headline rate to its best level since September 2008," says ING.

Meanwhile, sales of food items are up 26.1% YoY, with probably around half of this expansion reflecting a lower tax evasion after the VAT for these goods was cut in Jun-15.

"The retail activity for non-food goods is, in our opinion, a better gauge for the overall consumer morale. In January 2016, although flat on the month, retail sales for non-food items were up by 10.6% YoY from a year ago, more than four times larger than the average expansion in 2015 (of +2.5%)," say ING experts.

This print seems largely driven by sales of clothing, footwear and IT&C, which expanded well in excess of 20% YoY, while sales of household appliances are not doing as well, but are still growing nicely.
The appetence for spending seems high also if you look at tourism services (up by 16% YoY in Jan-16), auto sales (+13.8% YoY) and RON consumer loans (+10.9% YoY), ING analysts conclude.

StreamWIDE, a company specialized in the software and telecommunications industry, realocates its office in Bucharest in the Timpuri Noi Square project, joining the new IT hub created in the business park devel

During 2020–2021 to approx. 635,000 sqm of modern office space are expected to be delivered on market, increasing the Bucharest modern stock at approx. 3.9 million sq m, a step closer to a new a threshold and

Uber company launched this week in Bucharest the largest center in Central and Eastern Europe that offers assistance to drivers and business partners in Romania, a center where they can contact directly Uber re

Samsung Electronics and Orange Romania have successfully deployed a 5G New Radio (NR) network to demonstrate a series of 5G use cases at Untold Festival 2019, the largest annual dance music festival in Romania,

Ropardo MVP Lab has been named as ‘One to Watch' in Europe in a list of business excellence published by the European Business Awards, one of world's largest and longest running business competitions.

Endava, one of the most important software companies, present on the local market with 7 delivery centers, reaches an almost double capitalization, 2.07 billion USD, on July 26, 2019, one year after listing. Th

Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, announced the launch of its Cyber Defence Centre in Bucharest, Romania. The Defence Centre is an expansion of services delivered thro

QuEST Global, a global product engineering and lifecycle services company, has successfully completed the integration of IT Six Global Services SRL. QuEST Global acquired IT Six, a software engineering services

RE/MAX Romania has expanded its network, adding three new offices – RE/MAX Partners in Cluj, RE/MAX Quality in Sibiu and RE/MAX Prestige in Targu Mures.

Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI have partnered to further extend Microsoft Azure's capabilities in large-scale AI systems, according to a release of Microsoft.

The Diplomat-Bucharest together with Outsourcing Today organize the 3rd Edition of WORKPLACE OF THE FUTURE, on 20th of November 2019, in Bucharest, at Capital Plaza Hotel.

Latest trends like demographic upheaval, globalization, digital technology, and changing social values and worker expectations, are disrupting business models and radically changing the workplace. These are req

Informal IT School announced a partnership with UiPath to launch an RPA development educational program of five months, 100 hours of courses, five days a week. The program will run in Cluj-Napoca.

Impact Hub Bucharest, a coworking spaces manager and developer of accelerator programs and events merged with 3house, a new concept of workplace launched in 2018. By this, Impact Hub reaches 3 locations and 6.7

The second quarter of 2019 reconfirmed the increased interest for the office market in Romania. Over 115,000 square meters of office space were leased over this period at the national level, a value similar wit