Romania economy grows by 4.3 percent in Q1 2016, says INS

Romanian economy posts 4.3 pct growth in Q1, says INS

Newsroom 13/05/2016 | 10:20

The Romanian economy grew by 4.3 percent in the first quarter of this year against the same period of last year, according to a flash estimate by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

According to the INS, the GDP moved up by 1.6 percent against Q4 2015.

Analysts at ING Romania said that in the first quarter, the consumption has accelerated while the industrial production has had its worst quarter since 2009.

“All ingredients of excess demand are in place: job creation over the last twelve months stayed close to all time high, nominal wage growth for Mar-16 increased by 12.1 percent y-o-y, with negative inflation (-3.0 percent y-o-y) pushing real wage expansion above 15 percent leading to retail sales advancing by 18.4 percent y-o-y in Mar-16. Furthermore, despite weaker consumer confidence in 1Q16, RON consumer loans were up by 14.1 percent in Mar-16. Excess domestic demand is likely to keep the net export as a drag to growth for the sixth consecutive quarter,” said ING analysts in a report.

ING’s economists expect trade and IT&C to help the economic growth, while the contributions from industry and construction will be limited, according to confidence indicators.