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GfK: Retail stores in Romania and Lithuania to record greatest progress in Europe in 2019
The business figure of retail stores (brick and mortar) in 27 EU states (without Great Britain) will grow by 0.2% in 2019, the highest increase rate being expected in Romania (7%) and Lithuania (6%), according to the latest GfK analyses on the European retail market.
The study analyses tendencies and evolution in 27 European states and presents a prognosis of the business figure for 2019, offering retailers, investors and project developers an important reference point for decision making.
“In 2019, GfK foresees a business figure increase by 2% for retail stores in European countries. This increase is just a little over the inflation rate and is comparable to the growth noticed last year,” retail expert Johannes Schamel explains.
According to the study, in 2018 every citizen of the 27 countries analyzed had a purchase power of 16,878 euro. This is the equivalent of a nominal increase of the per capita purchase power compared to last year. The ten Eastern European nations with the highest increase of purchase power per capita in 2019have a purchase power below the average.
Even though on the rise, purchase power in Romania is among the lowest in Europe. The situation is similar in Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania and Turkey.
The share of commercial areas per capita remains the same as last year – 1.13 m. Among the first three countries in the top we find Belgium (1.66 sq.m/capita), the Netherlands (1.60 sq m/capita), and Austria (1.62 sq / capita). In Eastern Europe, Croatia (1.16.sq.m/capita; +2.8%), Bulgaria (0.77 sq.m/capita; 1.7%) and Romania (0.73 sq.m/capita; 1.7%) succeeded in winning more ground , although Romania and Bulgaria continue to be the lowest in the EU top.
The business figure is significantly lower among retailers in eastern and southern EU countries. With areas between 2,680 euro/sq.m and 2,760 euro/sq.m, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria have the lowest profit values in EU. However, these countries are among those boasting the highest annual gains and increases from 5.7% to 6.7%, which means that they are slowly reducing differences to the other countries, the study shows.