Romania's Gross Domestic Product went down by 0.6 percent in the third quarter of the year compared to the same quarter in 2011, and was also down 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter, according to the country's Statistics Institute. The economic growth at nine months was of only 0.2 percent year-on-year, very close to stagnation.

Mid-2012, the Statistics Institute revised its economic growth forecast down, announcing a 0.7 percent prediction. Romania's creditor, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) judged economic growth fragile for Romania and estimated 0.9 percent for this year, while the European Commission gave a 0.8 percent growth prediction for this year. Trade risk assessment company Coface recently gave one of the most pessimistic forecasts so far, of 0.5 percent growth for this year.

Romania's economy was up 2.5 percent in 2011, much helped by the good crops, which were however an exception, and did not reflect the country's real potential, president Traian Basescu recently said.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: sxc.hu)