July 7 (SeeNews) - Romania's economic growth decelerated to 2.4% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, compared to a 5% annual increase in the like period of 2019, the statistical board, INS, said on Tuesday, citing non-adjusted provisional data.
The data confirms earlier provisional estimates released by INS last month.
The volume of final household consumption in the first quarter of the year was revised upwards to 4.1%, from a previous preliminary estimate of 3.1%, INS data showed.
The agricultural sector output edged up by 0.4%, down from a previous estimate of 0.5% growth, while gross fixed capital formation increased 13.1%, up from a previous 5.9% growth estimate. The industrial sector output lost 5.9%, while construction jumped by 23.3%, in line with provisional estimates.
Imports of goods and services rose by 2.9% in the first quarter of 2020, up from a 0.8% advance estimated in June, while exports fell 1.3%, compared to a 5.5% decrease estimated earlier.
On a seasonally adjusted annual comparison basis, Romania's gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed down to an annual 2.7% in the first quarter of 2020, from a 5.1% increase in the first quarter of last year, INS data showed, confirming earlier estimates.
Romania's GDP grew by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter of 2020, compared to 1.2% quarterly growth in the fourth quarter of 2019, latest data also showed, confirming an earlier forecast.
INS said it has revised growth for the fourth-quarter of 2019 to 1.2% from 1.5% estimated earlier.
In mid-April, the government revised this year's budget bill to reflect forecasts that the country's economy will contract by 1.9% and consolidated budget deficit will widen to 6.7% of the projected GDP.
Romania's economy expanded by 4.1% last year, according to INS provisional data.
(1 euro=4.8365 lei)