“Economic expectations have fallen by 3 points since June to 1.2 points in September. A year ago, the indicator counted an additional 18.5 points,” according to GfK Consumer Climate Europe study for the third quarter of 2016.
The strong economic growth is reducing unemployment rates and therefore increasing income. The Romanians also assume that nothing will change in the coming months. Income expectations were at 20.8 points in September, an increase of 2.3 points since June.
According to GfK, the upswing is gradually improving the sentiment among Romanian consumers. At 2.3 points in September, propensity to buy was only slightly higher than the long-term average value of 0 points, but it did reach 5.4 points in July, the highest value since October 2008.
However, these indicator values also clearly show that the overwhelming majority of the population can still only afford to buy everyday essentials. High-value products and services still remain out of reach for most consumers.
On a European level, the economic and income expectations and propensity to buy indicators have not developed uniformly, overall, the consumer climate for the EU28 fell from 13.1 points to 12.3 points from June to September 2016. The top transnational issue in the third quarter, especially at the beginning, was the British people’s decision to leave the EU, GfK said.