GfK: The Romanians, still pessimistic 2013 on economy and income revival in 2014

The Romanians are as pessimistic as in 2013 as regards the revival of the economy and the income this year, only the desire to buy being in slight increase, according to the GfK indicators since the end of Q1.

2014-05-06 10:54:18

"As a whole, the feelings of the consumers changed too little since the beginning of 2014. The low level which persisted during most of the last year continued to dominate in Q1 as well' the GfK survey on "The consumption climate in Europe which was made in 14 European states".

Thus, the expectations regarding the economic state is at -17.2 points, against -14 points in December and -13.6 points one year ago. At the same time, the expectations regarding the income have a similar evolution, the indicator being at -8.2 points. It is about a minimum improvement, of 0.7 points, against December, while in March 2013, the indicator was at a better level, of -5.4 points.
The desire to buy is at present at -13.8 points, which means a slight increase, of 1.7 points, as compared to December. One year ago, the figure was -18.3 points.

According to GfK, the economy in the EU states start to grow again, and the consumers hope that this year the economic crisis will end. "The indicator of consumption climate for the EU reflects this trend, getting 0.8 points for Q1 of 2014. At present, it is situated at 8.4 points. The optimism which got several European consumers is completely justifiable. In almost all countries represented here, the indicators connected to expectations regarding the state of the economy and income, as well as the desire for purchase, have growing tendencies' the report shows.

In the majority of the EU countries covered in the study, the GDP increased both comparatively to the previous quarter, and to the previous year. Only the countries experiencing the crisis, Greece and Italy reported a new decrease of the GDP, as compared to the previous quarter at the end of 2013. In Italy, the economy had a slight rebound in Q4 with increase of 0.1 points as compared to the previous year.

"The germs of the revival continue to be extremely fragile but, there are still uncertainties to be overcome. France and Italy wish to give up the austerity measures and start to have other debts to help the economy to come back through better investments. It is still to see what kind of impact will have this on the credit rating on the financial markets and the European fiscal compact. Another risk is low inflation," according to the GfK study.

The results of the GfK survey Consumption climate in Europe is based on a study on the consumers made, at the request of the European Commission, in the EU countries. Almost 40,000 people are questioned every month, representing the adult population in 28 EU countries.