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_ Consumer spending on goods, services fall by 11pct on average in Romania (survey)

Consumer spending on goods, services fall by 11pct on average in Romania (survey)

According to the survey conducted by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Romania foundation, family savings were greater from energy consumption than food.

However, even with measures to regulate energy and food prices, the consumption basket for a decent minimum living is today almost 40% more expensive than three years ago.

"Without measures to cap energy prices, the total value of the minimum basket for a decent living would have increased by 10.4%, along with housing costs, leading to an increase in the need for savings. At the same time, the estimated impact of measures to cap food markups was 0.6% of the value of the basket, according to calculations made by expert Stefan Guga, author of the survey. The energy and food price regulations came as rising prices threatened to catastrophically affect the living standards of Romania's population, with inflation reaching figures during 2022 unprecedented in the last two decades: 16.8% in November 2022. In 2023, inflation decreased further, reaching 6.6% in December 2023, according to data with the National Institute of Statistics," according to the survey.

In autumn of 2021 and early 2022, all governments in the European Union adopted regulations aimed at reducing energy inflation (gas, electricity, heat) including tax cuts (including VAT), capping consumer prices, providing aid for vulnerable groups, while taxation on windfall profits became almost universal across the European Union - and still is as long as the measures remain in place.

In Romania, Emergency Ordinance 27/2022 capped consumer prices for gas and electricity as from April 2022, being extended and subsequently supplemented by other pieces of legislation.

Taken into account when carrying out the analysis of the impact of measures regulating energy and food prices were the implications for the value of the consumption basket for a decent minimum living, as defined in Law 174/2020, and based on the analyses published so far by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Romania.

The impact was calculated versus the December 2023 consumption basket, the last month for which data are available.

(Fluierul)

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