On Thursday, the European Commission estimated that the growth rate of Romanian economy slowed down by 1.8% in 2023, 0.4% less than estimated in the fall, when the high inflation and slow credit growth affected domestic demand, while foreign demand was very low, according to winter economic provisions released on Thursday by EC. The Commission also reviewed estimates referring to the advance of Romanian economy in 2024 to 2.9% from 3.1% as foreseen in the fall of 2023. Although private consumption is expected to increase, investments will remain the main contributor to GDP increase this year. Monetary policy is expected to be a restrictive one in 2024 and will relax only gradually when inflation pressure drops. The relaxation of financial and monetary conditions, accompanied by a higher foreign demand will lead to a real GDP increase of 3.2% in 2025, somewhat less than autumn prognosis, the EC report shows. Concerning inflation, EC estimates that in 2023 it dropped to 9.7% from 12% in 2022, mainly due to the significant slowdown of private credit increase and strict monetary conditions, as well as lower energy and food prices. Except for a short period at the beginning of 2024, following some increase of indirect taxes, prices will continue to drop. Average annual inflation is foreseen to reach 5.8% in 2024 in order to slow down to 3.6% in 2025,”EC estimates, warning that there are risks of a disinflation process more gradual in case salaries and pensions continue to grow rapidly. The European Commission publishes two sets of detailed provisions every year, in the spring and autumn and two sets of intermediate provisions in winter and summer. Intermediate provisions include annual and quarterly GDP and inflation values of all member states for the on-going and future years, as well as data for the EU and euro areas.
The Ministry of Development proposed to the government to analyse the opportunity to develop an investment program dedicated to the economic recovery of small towns with a population of under 25,000 in non-metropolitan areas. The financial support for the development of these towns has been so far fragmented, and competition with large cities for funds proved […]
Prime minister Ilie Bolojan said on November 6 that he hopes that the ruling coalition will manage to legislate by the end of this month the rest of the second package of budgetary measures, namely the public administration streamlining law and the law on magistrates' pensions. Unless the law on the public administration is legislated, […]
Japanese group Makita announced that it will reduce production of power tools in China for the US market due to the unpredictability of US tariffs and move this production to factories in Romania and Thailand, according to Nikkei Asia, as reported by Economica.net. The Japanese group reported business of almost EUR 640 million locally...
The Competition Council has outlined a series of concerns related to the transaction through which the Schwarz group, which operates the Kaufland and Lidl store chains in Romania, intends to take over the La Cocoș stores, according to a press release quoted by
Romania’s flag carrier, Tarom, has requested the government to disburse a new tranche of restructuring state aid approved in 2024 to address the current liquidity deficit, Profit.ro reported. The company argued that, because of late payment penalties...
Retail sales volume contracted by 2.3% q/q in Q3, resulting in a 0.3% y/y decline in Romania (the second negative reading since the Covid-19 pandemic), visibly dragged down by the real wages that contracted by 3.7% y/y in July-August (latest data available) after +2.2% y/y in Q2, +4.6% y/y in Q1 and around 9%-10% y/y […]
