January 20 (SeeNews) - Romania's economic output will shrink by an estimated 4.4% in 2020, finance ministry analysts said, revising their previous forecast for a 4.2% contraction due to expectations of weaker than originally projected performance across sectors.
The National Prognosis Commission (CNP), an analyst unit within the finance ministry, said in a statement on Tuesday that Romania's 2020 gross domestic product (GDP) would total 1.040 trillion lei ($258 billion/213 billion euro).
For 2021, the analysts at CNP expect the economy to return to 4.3% growth, compared to a 4.5% rise in GDP they forecast in the previous prognosis made in November.
In 2020, Romania's economy will be affected by a 4% year-on-year drop in final household consumption, CNP said, revising its November forecast for a 2% decrease.
The CNP said it expects agriculture to shrink by an annual 21.9%, services by 2.3% and industry by 8.7% in 2020, while construction is expected to add an annual 10.6%. These figures compare with November forecasts for 21.2% contraction of agricultural output, 2% drop in services, 9.1% contraction in industry and a 9.5% increase in construction output.
Exports of goods and services are expected to shrink by 10.6% in 2020, while imports are seen decreasing by 5.9%, according to the latest CNP projection.
Analysts gave no new data regarding the 2020 consolidated budget deficit, which in November they expected to see at 9.1% of GDP.
Romania's economic output contracted by a 5.7% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020, compared to a 3.4% annual growth in the like quarter of 2019, the statistical board, INS, said last week, citing non-adjusted provisional revised data.
The country's economy expanded by 4.1% in 2019.
(1 euro = 4.8742 Romanian lei)