April 5 (SeeNews) - Romania's economy expanded by 6.9% year-on-year in 2017, below the initial estimate of 7% released in March, preliminary official data showed on Thursday.
In 2016 the country's gross domestic product (GDP) posted 4.8% growth.
Final household consumption grew by a revised 6.4% in 2017, the country's statistical board, INS, said in a statement. In the previous INS estimate, the growth figure stood at 6.7%.
The agricultural sector's output increased 18.3% year on year in 2017. Gross fixed capital formation grew by a revised 4.7%, the industrial sector expanded by 8% and construction output edged down by a revised 0.6%.
Imports of goods and services increased 11.3%, while exports grew 9.7% in 2017.
In the fourth quarter of 2017 alone, Romania's economic growth accelerated to an annual revised 6.7%, from a revised 8.5% in the third quarter, INS unadjusted data data showed.
On a seasonally adjusted quarterly comparison basis, Romania's GDP growth decelerated to a revised 0.5% in the fourth quarter, compared to a 2.4% increase in the previous quarter.
The 2017 budget bill was built on projections of 6.1% economic growth and deficit equivalent to 2.96% of GDP.
In February, Romanian finance ministry analysts raised their 2018 growth forecast to 6.1% from 5.5% based on expectations of more robust performance across sectors than originally projected.
(1 euro=4.6596 lei)