The Romanian market of durable goods suffered a 33.4 pc decline in Q1 2009 compared to the same period of 2008, to EUR 356 M – the lowest value in the last two years, writes a report by the research and analysis company GfK. The loss can be attributed to sales declining on all market segments, namely white and brown goods, electronics, telecom equipment, IT and photo devices. The steepest decline rates were experienced by office and photo equipment, which fell by over 40 pc. Small household electric appliances were least affected during the first quarter, yet they lost 16 pc, down to EUR 17 M. The telecom market too went down 26.7 pc year-on-year, to EUR 64 M, while the electronics market had a decrease of 34.4 pc to EUR 59 M. Romania’s IT sales declined by 34.3 pc in Q1 2009, compared to a year ago, GfK saying this result was partly caused by lower sales of monitors and desktop computers. The effect of the latest events related to the foreign currency exchange rate influenced the evolution of prices, so that the decline in EUR surpassed that in RON, according to GfK.
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