Romania: drastic decline, in line with consumption trends

In Romania the number of completed transactions in the retail sector dropped from 15 to 6 in the first eight months of 2011. Consumption growth practically stopped: retail sales will hardly exceed RON 20 billion after the RON 19.97-billion performance last year. We forecast a decline in the number of transactions for 2011. Recommendations for the retail sector: 16-percent corporate tax, 9-percent VAT on agricultural book distribution, newspapers, pharmaceuticals and until the end of 2011 special VAT regulation applies to the domestic transportation of fruit-vegetable, muesli, meat, sugar and bakery products.