Romania`s economy shrinks 8.8 percent in Q2
Romania’s gross domestic product (GDP) compressed 8.8 percent in the second quarter compared to the similar interval in 2008, in line with estimates, but was 1.2 percent smaller than in the first three months, according to data published by the National Statistics Institute (INS).
The analysts polled by NewsIn anticipated that Romania’s economy shrank between 8 and 10 percent year-on-year in the period April-June, after all sectors recorded a negative evolution, and mentioned the second or the third quarter will represent the bottom line of the economic decrease.
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission in Romania, Jeffrey Franks, declared at the beginning of the week that the GDP lowered by almost 10 percent in the second quarter and that the bottom line will be reached in the last trimester of the year or in the first three months of 2010.
Romania’s economy reduced 7.6 percent in the first semester, according to INS.
IMF revised prognosis on Romania’s economic decrease this year to 8 – 8.5 percent, from the previous forecast of 4.1 percent, which indicates a “severe recession.”
The Finance Minister Gheorghe Pogea declared two days ago that the GDP should stand at 497.3 billion lei at year-end, down from 531.25 billion lei as previously estimated.