EC might improve 2021 economic forecast for Romania

Romania's economy has weathered the Covid crisis better than expected. Thus, officials in Brussels could improve their estimates on Romania's economic growth for this year in the European Commission's spring forecast, which will be published in May, European Commissioner for the Economy Paolo Gentiloni said on Tuesday, March 23.

Under the winter forecast released in February, the European Commission estimated an economic decline of 5% for Romania's economy in 2020, compared to 6.3% in the EU, and anticipated 3.8% recovery for this year and 4% in 2022.

"But this was before the data for the last quarter of 2020, which showed a better-than-expected recovery, resulting in a 3.9% GDP decline last year, better than our previous estimates," the European official said, according to Economica.net. In his opinion, the Romanian economy is on the right track.

Nevertheless, Gentiloni pointed to the Commission's concerns about the sustainability of public finances. Last year, Romania's public deficit reached almost 10% of GDP, as a result of a pre-existing trend and the COVID-19 crisis, he commented.

"We could very well look to revise these figures further when we present our spring forecast, in May, if we have a National Recovery and Resilience Plan agreed in general with the European Commission, before the deadline for these forecasts, which is the end of April," Gentiloni explained.

He pointed out that the Recovery and Resilience Fund could be the defining element for the next decade.

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