What the first data from companies say about the trend of consumption in December

One of the most frequent questions at the start of this year is linked to December sales and this is so because for many industries this month's revenues make up as much as 30-40% of annual turnover.
The first data ZF collected from companies present on eight markets show that in the food industry, the soft drinks, beer or wine ones December sales were generally weaker against the similar month of 2009, while major retailers are speaking about stagnation, in fortunate cases, for the time being.
On the other hand, luxury hotels had their restaurants full at the New Year's Eve Party, while Calea Victoriei luxury stores reached and even went beyond sales targets in the last month of the year.
What are these first data saying? Codru] Pascu, managing partner with Roland Berger consultancy has recently told ZF that there are major differences from one field to another, so that any analysis should be carried out along sectors. This also shows in the figures reported by domestic companies, with exporters seeing their sales rise, but also with firms that sell only in Romania and that are being hurt by the falling consumption.