Dan Ostahie, the chief executive of Altex, the largest electronics, home appliances and IT&C products retailer in Romania feels there is a slight rise in sales in July after a first-half when the home appliances market went down. "We estimate the market in the second half of this year will be worth as much as in the second half of last year," Ostahie said. Altex's CEO stated the electronics and home appliances retail market in Romania would go down by 20% on the segment of white goods and by 8-10% on the segment of brown goods this year. The decline will maintain throughout next year, as well, with growth expected for 2008. The Romanian retail market will catch up with the European market as late as in 2010, Altex officials say. Ostahie evaluates this year's market at some 700 million euros, less than the 800 million-euro mark overshot in 2005. "The market decline comes as a result of the very high level of consumption driven by loans between 2003-2005, and of the National Bank policy to restrain consumption on credit," Ostahie added. Three months into the year, Altex announced a 47 million-euro turnover, down about 8% from the same time last year. Altex opened a new Media Galaxy store in Bucharest on Friday, which takes up 6,000 square metres, the largest such store in Romania. The other Media Galaxies opened thus far take up 2,000 to 4,000 square metres. The opening was extremely lively, with people taking the store by storm to buy the products whose prices had been cut by 50%. Altex officials did not comment on the sales in the opening day.
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