PM Dancila: INS, Eurostat data show Romanian economy continues to perform

The Romanian economy continues to perform in the third quarter of this year, with the economic growth being by 1.9pct higher than in the second quarter of 2018, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said on Thursday in the opening of the Government's meeting.

"The statistical data recently published by the National Institute of Statistics and Eurostat confirm that the Romanian economy continues to perform. In the third quarter of this year, the economic growth accelerated significantly, by 1.9pct compared to the second quarter of 2018, the highest quarterly increase this year. Moreover, Romania had the second-largest quarterly economic growth in the European Union in the third quarter of 2018. In the first nine months of this year, Romania recorded an additional GDP of 64 billion lei, compared to 62.8 billion lei in the same period of 2017 and only 36.1 billion lei in the first nine months of 2016," said Viorica Dancila.

The prime minister added that more than half of the economic growth recorded in the third quarter of this year "comes from industry and agriculture, which shows a sustainable growth."

"If we consider that exports have increased by 10pct in recent months, we can say that the Romanian economy improves its competitiveness, gaining new foreign markets," Dancila said.

The prime minister also referred to the updated situation on inflation.

"Because some analysts and politicians say that inflation is rising and that this is affecting the population, the National Institute of Statistics has also recently shown that in November prices were lower than in October. As a result, year-on-year inflation reached 3.43pct compared to 4.25pct in October 2018 and 5.03pct in September 2018," Dancila added. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Florea, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Bogdan Gabaroi; editor: Simona Iacob)