Consumer goods industry rises 6pct in 2018

The consumer goods industry rose by 5.7pct in 2018 compared to 2017, the increase being mostly due to inflation, according to a specialist survey issued for AGERPRES. 

According to Eurostat, the rise in food prices was 4pct last year. Consumption grew slightly but the Romanians did not migrate to higher price segments. 

From the point of view of purchasing behavior, families in Romania went shopping as often as in the previous year, while the average purchase price increased by 6pct, according to the GfK survey. 

Discount shops boosted home shopping. Throughout 2018, modern commerce has become even more important for consumer shopping of home products. These formats currently hold 62pct of spending, almost two percentage points more than in 2017. 

Romanians left most of the shopping money in hypermarkets, but these were rarely visited to buy home products. Instead, discount stores and supermarkets increased their market share as a result of the larger amounts left by families in these formats. Modern convenience stores also strengthened their position for home shopping and managed to attract more buyers in 2018 as compared to 2017. 

In terms of home purchases, all segments of current consumer goods increased during the year 2018, influenced by larger baskets purchased at a shopping act. We notice the most accelerated dairy evolution for which Romanians spent 9pct more. The household care products segment also recorded a significant increase (+7pct), while personal care products evolved at the same pace as the market. 

With regard to food, both packaged and fresh foods had a dynamics of about 6pct in value. For the beverage segment (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) we see a modest increase of 4pct.