Romania's economy shrinks more than 8% in Q2, finance minister deems

The National Statistics Institute (INS) will publish on August 13 data regarding the evolution of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter.

Pogea also mentioned the country will witness a 8.4 – 8.5 percent shrink of the GDP at year-end, after he discussed with the representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the macroeconomic projection. 

The government will negotiate with the IMF representatives to increase the accepted budget deficit within the agreement, to about 7.1 – 7.2 percent of the GDP, following the worldwide difficult economic situation, which prompted lower budgetary incomes.  

According to the previous negotiations, Romania's government established a budget gap target of 4.6 percent of the GDP for the year, the equivalent of 24.3 billion lei, following the agreement inked with IMF, which set Romania quarterly targets for the budget deficit: 14.5 billion lei at the end of the second quarter and maximum 18.6 billion lei for the third quarter. 

The budget deficit reached 2.71 percent of the GDP at mid-year, respectively 14.38 billion lei, slightly below the target established with IMF at 2.73 percent.