Romania's GDP sees solid growth

 In 2022, a very complicated year for the entire world in economic and social terms, but also as regards security and stability, Romania saw a record increase in its GDP, which went up by 49 billion euros as against 2021, from 240 billion euros to almost 290 billion euros, according to the The National Commission for Strategy and Prognosis. The institution estimates for this year a slow down in economic growth to 2.8% from 4.9% in the previous year and a significant drop in the inflation rate to 8% by year-end, from 16.4% in 2022. According to the European Commission’s winter economic forecast, made public on Thursday the consumption rate could go down from 4.6% to 2.4%. Also, the GDP is expected to go up by 4.8% and inflation to decrease to 3.7%.

Through its GDP increase in 2022, Romania has changed the type of economic engine, switching from a slow one during the Covid pandemic to a sustainable one, based on economic stimuli, sais Finance Minister Adrian Câciu. He explained that in the previous years, the state budget allocation stood at around 2% of the GDP while in 2022 it accounted for 6% of the GDP, plus the tax credit of 4.7%. Adrian Câciu also said that, in the economic growth pattern of the two semesters, some economic direction zones are switched – the growth starts to be based on the gross fixed capital, which is the first signal that we are in a phase of sustainable development, in the sense that development is built on both public and private investment.

PM Nicolae Ciuca also talked about the important role of investment, and pointed out that sustained work has been done by every ministry, at the level of Romanian economy. “We have this increase of 49 billion euros, which suggests we should have confidence in the Romanian business environment and offer it all it needs to yield good results on the local and foreign European market,” the PM said. He also explained that, alongside foreign investment, the efficiency in drawing European funds played an important role in the Romanian economy. He reminded that 11.3 billion euros entered the country in 2022 through this European mechanism.

For 2023, data from the National Commission for Prognosis are also positive, PM Ciuca said. “Taking into account the economic context in which analysts speak of a drop in economic growth and also about recession in 2023, the forecast for Romania is positive, with a 2.8% growth rate being expected”, PM Ciuca explained. (EE)