Industry points towards recession

The gross added value within industry only rose by 0.8% in the third quarter of this year compared with 2004, a sharp decline from the increase of 4% in the first half and 6% in 2004, data from the National Statistics Institute (INS) shows. This is the worst result in terms of gross added value in industry since 1999, that is, since the last economic recession. Therefore the growth of just 1.8% in the gross domestic product during the third quarter of 2005, compared with the same time in 2004, can be explained by a phenomenon pertaining to structure rather than circumstance, the floods. Gross added value in industry accounts for 30% of the GDP, with the rest being composed of services (47%), agriculture (11%) and constructions (6%) among others. However, services (retail, transportation) gravitate around industry and a drastic slowdown of industrial output can lead to a slowdown in the growth of services, which increased by 9.9% during the third quarter. Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu explained to ZIARUL FINANCIAR that the economy was facing the problem of the restructuring of the entire industry. ZF