Romania Economy Grew Better Than Expected At 0.7% In 2012

04.03.2013 By Florentina Dragu

Romania’s economy grew at a faster 0.7% than previously estimated in 2012, reflecting a smaller negative impact from industry and a positive contribution of the retail sector, revised data from the statistics institute INS showed Wednesday.

Last month’s data indicated an annual increase of 0.3% in real terms.

Industry made a negative contribution of 0.3% to the 2012 economic growth, compared with a 0.6% impact estimated earlier, the statistics institute said in a third estimate.

The retail sector increased 0.2% year-on-year, versus no growth initially predicted.

Fourth-quarter gross domestic product expanded 0.4% in seasonally adjusted data compared with a quarter earlier. The data was revised up from a growth of 0.1% previously reported.

Compared with the fourth quarter of 2011, Romania’s GDP increased by 0.7% in the last three months of 2012, up from a meager 0.1% growth indicated last month. In unadjusted data, the annual growth was 1.1%, significantly better than an earlier estimate of 0.3%.

The revised 2012 figures reflected additional data on the fourth economic growth, including a substantially larger contribution of the public administration and defense sector, INS said.

Additionally, the GDP indices were recalculated to accommodate a change in the reference year to 2010 from 2005 previously.

Romania expects the economy will advance by 1.6% in 2013, helped by consumer spending and investment growth.