Bank analyst says Romania’s industry is in recession

Romania’s industry “undergoes recession”, Raiffeisen Bank’s chief economist Ionut Dumitru said at a conference, adding that other sectors perform comparatively better, Hotnews.ro reported.

The year-on-year economic growth in the second quarter of the year actually exceeded the consensus forecast. However, the growth was driven by consumption and the investments were focused on constructions instead of production equipment, Dumitru stressed.

Industry remains the main concern, though. The added value generated by industry, seasonally adjusted, decreased for the second consecutive quarter in Q2, he explained. In Q1, industry generated a 2.2% lower added value compared to the last quarter of 2018, and, in the second quarter this year, the added value generated by industry further decreased by 0.1% compared to the previous quarter.

However, the sectors of construction, services and agriculture performed better, generated more added value, and the overall GDP advanced by 1.2% (q/q) in the first quarter and 1.0% in the second quarter.

The slowdown experienced by the local economy is to a large extent due to developments in the economies of Romania’s main economic partners (Germany primarily).

Most of the manufacturing industries posted over the past quarters negative growth rates amid disappointing exports, Dumitru argued. Employment across manufacturing industries also declined, he added.

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