Romania's economy was up 2.1 percent in the first quarter of the year on the same period of 2012 in gross series, which is double than what the analysts had been expecting. The quarter-on-quarter increase was of 0.5 percent. The IMF estimates a 1.3 percent GDP growth for Romania this year, after a revised growth of 0.7 percent last year. In 2011, Romania's economy went up by 2.2 percent, after being down 1.1 percent in 2010, according to the INS.

Recession continued in the eurozone and across the 27 EU members states GDP fell back into contraction in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the latest flash estimate from EU statistics office Eurostat. GDP contracted by 0.6 percent on the previous quarter in the eurozone during the last three months of 2012. It was the third consecutive quarterly contraction in the 17 euro area countries.

Romania's 0.2 percent quarterly advance put the country among a group of only six EU member states to register an increase in GDP over Q4 2012. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia were the other five countries to register an advance, out of the available results. The largest growth in GDP in was in Latvia, which registered a 1.3 percent monthly advance in the final quarter of 2012.

editor@romania-insider.com