The country’s gross domestic product expanded by 1.7% on the quarter in October through December, well above the EU average growth of 0.4%, EU’s statistics office Eurostat said in a flash estimate.
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2012, Romanian economy grew 5.1% in the last three months of last year, also the largest increase across the bloc. The EU average growth rate was 1%.
The eurozone economies increased at an average quarterly rate of 0.3% in the October-December period.
Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted gross domestic product rose by 0.5% in the euro area and by 1% in the EU28 in the fourth quarter of 2013, after -0.3% and +0.2% respectively in the previous quarter.
Over the whole 2013, GDP fell by 0.4% in the euro area, but inched up 0.1% in the EU28, the data showed.
Romanian GDP increased 3.5% in 2013, after a 0.6% growth a year earlier. It was the highest increase since 2008.