Ukrainian refugees helped push up retail sales in May to the highest growth rate in eight months.

Retail sales jumped by 8.1% year-on-year in May, the highest growth rate since September 2012 even as inflation reached 14.5% in May, according to Romanian Retail Sales Index.

The robust sales were generated by the spending by Ukrainian refugees as well as households front-loading planned expenditures ahead of price rises.

Food sales rose by 7% in May and non-food sales by 8.2%, while gasoline and diesel sales rose by 9.7% in volume terms, apparently unaffected by record fuel prices.

A main driver for the robust retail sales is the extra consumption generated by refugees from Ukraine. About 100,000 have remained out of the 1.3 million that entered Romania since Russia invaded in February.

One of the factors driving the non-food sales may be households have opted to purchase goods which are expected to cost more in the coming months.

However, sales of car fuels and food are not that high historically and remain close to the pre-crisis levels, while real incomes, despite the record inflation recently, have advanced.

In March, the average net wage was 9.4% higher compared to March 2019 in real terms, despite the 17% rise in consumer prices over the past three years.

Romanian border crossing bracing for 2nd wave of refugees from Ukraine-Save the Children