Romania: Economic growth moderates in the third quarter
The economy continued to grow, albeit at a softer pace, in the third quarter. GDP expanded 7.2% year-on-year, decelerating from the 13.9% jump recorded in Q2 amid a waning base effect.
Underlying momentum also lost steam as the economy expanded 0.3% on a seasonally-adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis in Q3. This was down from the 1.5% increase recorded in the second quarter.
A detailed breakdown of national accounts data for the third quarter will be released on 7 December.
Commenting on the outlook, Valentin Tataru, chief Romania economist at ING, noted:
“All things considered, we lower our GDP growth forecast for 2021 to 6.5% and maintain a mildly optimistic estimate of 4.5% for 2022. The risks for next year’s growth outlook are slightly skewed to the downside given the slowing economic momentum and marginally higher (but still deeply real negative) interest rates.”