The report highlights that while Polish sector grew by more than 3 per cent year on year and was the fastest growing market in Europe, the CE cosmetics market overall has stabilised over the last three years, boasting an average yearly increase of almost 2 per cent.
“In 2013 the market will grow at a faster rate and it will increase by 2.6 per cent and factors like a more stable situation in various economies and consumers increasing their household expenditures on purchases that were postponed in previous years will drive this."
And as such, PMR reckons that as cosmetics are one of the least expensive products in comparison to clothing, footwear or consumer electronics, they will therefore be the most commonly bought products by customers over the next year.
While economic performance wasn't as favourable - the cosmetics market is considered stable
In terms of economic performance, the market researcher reports CE to have remained unfavourable in 2012, as the GDP grew slower in all the countries compared to 2011, and countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic faced recession.
"The 0.3 p.p. decrease in growth rate is down to the difficult and uncertain situation on the CE labour markets as well as fiscal austerity measures, constraining the income of households as well as their propensity to consume.”
Despite this PMR says the cosmetics market was not affected with any dramatic changes, "although consumers in these countries became even more price sensitive than in the previous years, the cosmetics market in general could be considered stable. Even during the time of recession, consumers continued to spend money on cosmetics."
While the Polish market grows, Czech Republic sees a decrease in sales
According to the market analysts, the Czech Republic was the only country that reported a year-on-year decrease in cosmetics sales (0.8 per cent).
"In the Czech Republic both the economy and private consumption are declining, and the growth of wages did not offset the rising prices. Sales increases in both countries will only be the effect of higher inflation, and sales by volume are not expected to grow next year."