Ooni Koda
  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Newsfeed
  4. /
  5. Retail sales grew faster in Romania than in...

Retail sales grew faster in Romania than in the EU in February

May 10, 2022

Since early 2020, EU Member States have been taking restrictive measures to slow down the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. This didn’t stop in 2021, when different waves of COVID-19 outbreaks required the Member States to react, resulting in a considerable decrease in petroleum products consumption in the EU.    Consumption of motor gasoline, kerosene-type jet fuel and gas and diesel oil used for transport of people, heating and products were severely affected, and none of the fuels has completely returned to pre-COVID levels.    While in 2020, EU Member States showed a combined decrease in motor gasoline consumption of 11% (from 74 million tonnes to 66 million tonnes) compared to 2019 levels, this value stands at a 5% decrease in 2021 (from 74 million tonnes to 70.4 million tonnes in 2021). The biggest declines in consumption were registered in Ireland, Luxembourg and Spain (more than a 20% decrease in each).   As every Member State's air transport was profoundly affected, consumption of kerosene-type jet fuel fell drastically in 2020 compared to 2019 (-56%) and did not recover considerably in 2021 (still -46%). In 2020 and 2021, the smallest reductions in consumption were registered in Luxembourg and Belgium, while Croatia, Romania and Cyprus saw the largest decreases.    Among the Member States, the largest increases were in Slovenia (21.7%), Slovakia (16.5%) and Portugal (15.9%). In Romania, retail sales increased by 5.6% year-on-year, above the EU average.   EU consumption of gas and diesel oil down 7%   In terms of gas and diesel oil, in 2020, EU wide consumption fell by 7%, especially in Luxembourg, Italy, Spain and Slovenia. Only in Finland, Cyprus and Romania was consumption greater than in 2019. In 2021, EU consumption increased but was still below 2019 levels (-6%).   In some cases, like Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands and Greece, consumption in 2021 compared to 2019 levels fell to even lower levels than in 2020, while in 10 Member States the use of gas and diesel oil increased above 2019 levels (Romania, Estonia, Croatia, Poland, Cyprus, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czechia, Sweden and Latvia).  

The text of this article has been partially taken from the publication:
http://actmedia.eu/economic/retail-sales-grew-faster-in-romania-than-in-the-eu-in-february/97145
Read in full - click here
Film review – Gazing into the Past: Il Cinema Ritrovato & TIFF

June is the richest month. The most awaited two weeks in my annual festival pilgrimage. The route starts with Romania’s Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), followed by Italy’s (and the world’s) most comprehensive festival for restored and archival film: Il Cinema Ritrovato. To shake up the traditional article on the two, I’ll start with the […]

Different Beauty: Portraits from Donbas in David Těšínský’s Bucharest exhibition

Different Beauty, a recently opened exhibition of works by Czech photographer David Těšínský, offers a glimpse into everyday life in the war-torn region of Donbas in 2017. The photos were taken within the span of only a few days, as Těšínský traveled to eastern Ukraine to document the lives of women impacted by war. In […]

Different Beauty: Images from Donbas in David Těšínský’s Bucharest exhibition

Different Beauty, a recently opened exhibition of works by Czech photographer David Těšínský, offers a glimpse into everyday life in the war-torn region of Donbas in 2017. The photos were taken within the span of only a few days, as Těšínský traveled to eastern Ukraine to document the lives of women impacted by war. In […]

Most Romanians do not trust AI without human intervention, survey shows

Roughly 70% of Romanians are “very” or “moderately” concerned about how AI accesses and uses their data, according to the latest survey conducted by RoCoach in partnership with Novel Research between May and June 2025.  Distrust in automated decision-making and the demand for regulation are becoming more pronounced, as Romania rolls out major digitalization projects […]

Armenian Street Festival to take place at Bucharest’s Botanical Garden in August

The Armenian Street Festival returns for a 9th edition between August 1 and 3, 2025, in the “Dimitrie Brândză” Botanical Garden in Bucharest. The festival brings into focus the living heritage of the Armenian community in Romania and the diaspora. According to the organizers, this year’s edition aims to strengthen the Bucharest–Chișinău–Yerevan cultural axis, articulated […]

M&A market in Romania registered transactions worth EUR 2.7 bln in first half of 2025

The Romanian mergers and acquisitions market registered a total of 122 announced transactions in the first half of 2025, with a value exceeding EUR 2.7 billion, marking a slight increase of 6% in volume and 4% in value compared to the same period last year, according to an analysis by George Ureche, partner at PwC Romania. […]