Romania’s nominal GDP for 2019 slightly higher than initially announced

The revised GDP data for the fourth quarter of last year and the entire 2019, published by the statistics office INS on April 7, broadly confirmed the initial estimate issued in early March.

Thus, Romania’s GDP advanced by 4.1% in 2019, continuing to lose momentum after the 4.4% growth in 2018 and 7.1% robust expansion in 2017. In the fourth quarter of the year, the GDP increased by 4.3% compared to the same period of 2018 and by 1.5% (in seasonally adjusted terms) compared to the third quarter of the year.

Detailed data brought little modifications to the figures released in March: the sectors of constructions and services made the most significant contributions to the GDP growth in 2019, namely 1.0 pp and 0.9 pp respectively out of the 3.3% advance of the gross value added (the remaining up to 4.1% overall GDP growth came from the net taxes, attributable to all economic sectors).

On the utilisation side there was a small, yet relevant revision operated for Q4 GDP data: out of Romania’s total consumption, only 3.9% (compared to 4.6% under the first estimate in March) was formed by the net imports.

Another relevant revision was operated by the statistics office on the GDP deflator for the whole year (the indicator that follows the weighted average price in the whole economy), which was revised upward to 6.9% from 6.3% previously. This resulted in a slightly larger nominal GDP: RON 1,060 billion (EUR 223 bln), 0.6% more than estimated in March.

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