Bank economists start to sweeten their estimates on Romania’s economic decline

Austrian group Erste bank revised its estimate for the decline of Romania's seasonally adjusted GDP in the second quarter of this year (Q2) compared to the first quarter from 15.2% to 10.8% after recently published figures surpassed expectations.

This means that Romania's GDP is estimated to have declined by 9.0% year-on-year, compared to 13.5% under the previous estimate, local daily Adevarul reported.

In Q1, Romania's GDP still advanced by 2.4% yoy (+0.3% quarter-on-quarter, seasonally adjusted terms). For the whole year, Erste maintained its forecast for a 4.7% economic contraction in Romania.

The Romanian statistics office INS will publish the flash estimate for Q2 GDP on August 14.

In related news, Raiffeisen Bank Romania chief economist Ionut Dumitru says the bank would revise its estimation for the Romanian economy's contraction this year from -7% to -5%.

He believes the local economy will recover in the second half of the year, according to Ziarul Financiar.

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