Romania C-bank Sees Economy Returning to Growth in Q3 or Q4 - Media

"The economy will recover in the third or the fourth quarter. If not in the third one, then definitely in the last quarter, due to the base effect," Mediafax (www.mediafax.ro) quoted Isarescu as telling a financial seminar.

Romania's GDP rose by just 2.9% year-on-year in the last quarter of 2008, slowing down from 9.2% in the third quarter and 9.3% in the second one.

Romania's economy will most likely see a V-shaped recovery, as industrial production is already picking up from the bottom it hit in the February-March period, Isarescu said.

Romania's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by an annual 8.7% in the second quarter of 2009 and was 1.2% down from the first quarter.

The country's Finance Minister Gheorghe Pogea has repeatedly said he expects the economy to shrink by between 8.0% and 8.5% this year, after expanding by a real 7.1% in 2008.