Sales of computer and electronics products rose in the Czech Republic and Slovakia by more than 6% in the first half, compared with the year-ago period, almost three times faster than in Romania. On the other hand, the West is already seeing sales decline in Germany and Austria.
The differences stem from the confidence in the economy and the spending appetite, as well as from the room for growth Eastern countries still have until they catch up with the western countries in terms of number and quality of refrigerators, cookers and TV sets.
Romania’s computer and electronics market reached EUR1.4 billion in the first half of 2019, following the very good performance in April-June, driven by the government-backed scheme intended to help consumers replace their old appliances. The market had dropped in the first quarter after six years of uninterrupted growth. Sales of durable goods were badly hurt by the financial crisis but then gradually recovered.
“Early this year the Ordinance 114 (introducing taxation changes) and BNR (Romania’s central bank) lending regulations for individuals affected sales by credit cards. They returned to the growth later and recovered the lost ground. Meanwhile, the growth has slowed down,” Dragos Sirbu, the Romanian executive who has been running computer and electronics retailer Flanco for five years and a half, said a little while ago.
“Also, in the first half, the loans granted by NBFIs to customers looking to buy in installments dried up because those institutions were affected by the intermittent operation of the ANAF (Romanian tax authority) servers (which lenders use to find information about a loan applicant’s income i.e.).”
On the other hand, the government-backed scheme launched by the Environment Ministry in 2018 and enabling consumers to replace their old appliances continued and drove the market up. The scheme was launched in May this year and made a significant impact on sales in June.
Consumers sought mostly TVs, refrigerators and washing machines.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)