Despite two straight quarters of decline, Romania's economic trend still positive, EcoMin says

Although Romania's economy recorded two straight quarters of decline, it stays on a positive trend with a seasonally adjusted economic growth of 2.6 percent in the first half of 2014 compared to the similar period of 2013, Economy Minister Constantin Nita said in a press release to AGERPRES on Monday.

"The first aspect we need to underscore as regards the latest data on the Gross Domestic Product, released by the National Statistics Institute is the fact that although Romania's economy saw two straight quarters of decline in the GDP, considering the entire examined period, it remains on a positive trend with a seasonally adjusted economic growth of 2.6 percent compared to the similar period of 2013. From this point of view, the signal given by the technical definition of the economic recession, two straight quarters of economic decline, should not diminish the importance of the consolidated quarterly economic advance of 2.6 percent," the release reads.

According to Nita, the advance in Romania's GDP in the first quarter is also supported by certain key economic indicators such as exports, the industrial production and the retail trade.

"The exports in the first half amounted to 25.5 billion euros, up 7.6 percent compared to the same period of last year. In addition, the industrial production grew by 9.1 percent in the same interval compared to the first half of 2013 and the retail turnover volume edged up 8.6 percent," Nita pointed out.

The advance of 2.6 percent in the GDP in the first half of the year is on track for the 2.8 percent year-end growth target set up by Romania's Government, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

"From this viewpoint, the signal regarding a possible derailment of the...