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.

Source: Ziarul Financiar