Fuel and non-food sales declined sharply as the country was under state of emergency to contain the spread of the coronavirus, with most stores closed and traffic restrictions in place.
Retail sales dropped 19.7% on the month in April and 22.3% when adjusted for number of working days and seasonality. Fuel sales dropped 31.4%, non-food sales dropped 20.5%, and food, beverage and tobacco sales dropped 13.4%, the data showed.
Compared with April 2019, retail sales in Romania dropped 19.5% in unadjusted data and 18.5% in adjusted data. Fuels sales dropped 38.4%, non-food sales declined 22.9%, while food, beverage and tobacco sales dropped 4.7%.
In January-April, retail sales in Romania grew 1.5% in unadjusted data and 1% in adjusted data, as food sales grew 9.4% on the year. On the other hand, fuel sales dropped 8.1% on the year in the first four months, and non-food sales declined 0.6%.