Monthly growth was driven by 7.1% growth in food, beverage and tobacco sales and 6.9% growth in non-food sales. Fuel sales, on the other hand, declined 2.4%.
Compared with April 2020, when the country was in full lockdown, retail sales grew 42.8% in unadjusted data and by 38.4% in seasonally adjusted data. Annual growth in April was driven by 62.5% growth in non-food sales, 56.5% growth in fuel sales, while sales of food, beverages and tobacco grew 21.2%.
In the first four months of 2021, retail sales in Romania grew 12.5% compared with the same period in 2020. Adjusted for seasonality, retail sales grew 8.7% in January-April.