For almost six years, Romania’s index moved gradually, from 94.5 in Q2 2020 to 113.5 in Q4 2025. It then reached 153.8 in a single quarter. That is the highest reading in a series beginning in Q1 2000.
NACE Rev. 2 is the EU’s classification system for business activities; this index condenses changes in retail activity into a standardized gauge rather than reporting a cash amount.
The comparison with Europe is the clearest reason this matters. Romania’s index was 40.7% above its Q4 2024 reading, while the EU benchmark increased by 2.7% over the same period to 110.2. Romania ranked second among the 31 countries compared, against a peer median index reading of 108.25. This was not a similarly large, Europe-wide movement.
There is some supporting evidence in the broader retail data. Two entries in Eurostat’s annual turnover and sales-volume dataset reached index readings of 153.3 and 154.6 in 2025, respectively 31.0% and 30.6% above their previous readings. But those figures do not explain the latest quarterly leap or establish how broadly it was shared across retail activities.
The index should not be read as proof that Romanian households bought 35.5% more goods. Retail indicators can measure turnover or sales volume depending on the series specification: turnover can rise with prices, while volume is closer to the quantity sold. The supplied metric does not make that distinction clear. For policymakers and businesses, the reading is therefore a strong signal that measured retail activity has diverged from the European pattern—but not yet a clean measure of consumer welfare or living standards.