The Statistics Institute announced a 2.3% GDP decline in the third quarter of the year against the similar period of 2009, despite the rebound of agriculture and exports.
Romania, apart from Greece, is the only other EU economy to
remain in recession in the third quarter, contracting by 2.3%
against the similar period of last year.
Both countries have financing arrangements with the IMF and the EU,
which require them to put their public finances in order. However,
Hungary and the Baltic states, which also resorted to aid from the
IMF, managed to see economic growth, even above 2%.
“The austerity measures put additional pressure on an already weak
consumption. Most likely, the level of investments remained low,
affected to a rather large extent by the negative trend recorded in
the constructions sector,” believes Dumitru Dulgheru, BCR
analyst.
The effects of the ambitious fiscal consolidation programme and of
the VAT hike to 24% have been fully felt by the economy, with the
impact to potentially be seen in the last three months of the year,
as well.
According to estimates announced by the National Statistics
Institute, GDP fell by 0.7% in the third quarter of the year
against April-June and by 2.3% against the third quarter of last
year. The decline was of 2.5% for the gross series.
After a feeble return to economic growth in the second quarter, the
seasonally adjusted GDP went back into negative territory in the
third quarter, in line with the estimates from the IMF and from
analysts.