Economy growth of 5pct, mainly due to population consumption (INS)

The annualized growth rate of the Romanian economy in the first quarter of this year, of 5 pct as gross series and 5.1 pct as seasonally adjusted series, was mainly due to the final consumption expenditure of households, the volume of which increased by 6.7 pct, contributing 4.3 pct to the GDP growth, according to new data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), published on Thursday. 

Investments made a contribution of 0.9 pct to the GDP growth, and exports continued to have a negative contribution, of minus 3.3 pct. 

"As concerns the GDP growth, the increase was mainly due to following: the expenditure for the final consumption of households, whose volume increased by 6.7 pct, contributing 4.3 pct to the GDP growth, the gross fixed capital formation, whose volume increased by 5.4 pct, contributing 0.9 pct to GDP growth, the expenditure for the final consumption of public administrations, whose volume increased by 3.8 pct, contributing 0.7 pct to the increase of GDP. Net exports (-3.3pct) contributed negatively to GDP growth, as a consequence of the more pronounced increase in the volume of imports of goods and services compared to exports of goods and services," INS specifies in the provisional GDP growth data in the first quarter of this year. 

As compared to the fourth quarter of last year, seasonally adjusted series, the Gross Domestic Product estimated for the first quarter of 2019 was 253.628 billion lei current prices, up in real terms by 1.3pct. 

As gross series, the estimated GDP for the first three months of this year was 202.848 lei billion current prices. 

The Romanian authorities estimate an increase of 5.5pct in the Romanian economy this year, according to the Convergence Program 2019-2022 published by the Ministry of Finance, the evolution being the result of a positive contribution of the domestic demand (6.1 percentage points). 

On the other hand, international financial institutions are counting on a GDP growth of less than 4pct in Romania in 2019. Otherwise, the European Commission forecasts a 3.3pct advance in the economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - 3.1pct, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development - 3.2pct and the World Bank - 3.6pct.