Romania’s gross domestic product grew an annual 5.9% in the second quarter and 5.7% in seasonally adjusted terms, a flash estimate by the country’s statistics board showed Wednesday. Compared with the first quarter this year, second-quarter GDP grew 1.6% in real terms. In the first half of the year, Romania’s gross domestic product grew 5.8% (5.7% in seasonally adjusted data) compared with the same period last year.
“We believe the GDP dynamic in the first half 2017 is unsustainable, an aspect confirmed by a difficult investment climate, stalling reforms and a deterioration of macroeconomic balances,” said Banca Transilvania chief economist Andrei Radulescu.
Radulescu said the country’s GDP growth rate is expected to slow down in the second half of 2017, in the context of dissipating the impact of tax cuts stipulated in the new Tax Code, rising tensions and economic unbalances, with impact on funding costs, in an international context marked by a maturity of the post-crisis economic cycle and the gradual exit from monetary relaxation.