October 10 (SeeNews) - Romania's annual economic growth accelerated to 6.1% in the second quarter of 2017, above the initial estimate of 5.9% made in September, preliminary official data showed on Tuesday.
In the first quarter, Romania's economy grew by 5.7% on the back of strong performance of the industrial sector and rising consumption.
Quarter-on-quarter, the Romanian economy expanded by an adjusted 1.7% during April-June, up from the previous estimate of 1.6%, the country's statistical board, INS, said in a statement.
Overall, in the first half of 2017 Romania's economy grew by 5.9% on the year in non-adjusted terms and by 5.8% in seasonally adjusted terms, revised data showed.
The industrial sector grew by 7.8% on the year and by 2.8% on the quarter in the second quarter of 2017. In the previous estimate, the growth figures stood at 7.7% and 1.8%, respectively.
INS has also revised final household consumption annual growth rate to 6.5% from the earlier estimate of 6.9%. The quarterly growth was also revised to 3% from a previous 2.6%.
In the new INS report, gross fixed capital formation grew by 0.2% on the year and by 3.4% on the quarter during the period April-June.
The agricultural sector output increased 3.7% year-on-year in the second quarter, and grew by 1.3% on the previous quarter. The initial growth estimates stood at 3.2% and 2.1%, respectively.
According to the new INS estimates, construction output fell in the second quarter by 4% in the year and was 3.1% lower on the quarter.
In April-June, imports of goods and services increased by 11% on the year and by 0.9% on the quarter, while exports grew 9.8% on the year and by 1.8% on the quarter.
In 2016, Romania's economy expanded by 4.8%.
In September, finance ministry analysts raised their forecast for Romania's 2017 economic growth to 5.6% from 5.2% projected previously based on expectations of a more robust performance across sectors.
The finance ministry analysts left unchanged their economic growth forecasts for the next three years made in April - 5.5% in 2018, and 5.7% in 2019 and 2020 each.
On Saturday, Standard & Poor's maintained Romania's rating at BBB-/A-3, with a stable outlook, and said that the country's budget and trade deficits will widen due to the consumption-focused growth.
"Romania's procyclical budgetary stance is amplifying wage pressures in an already overheating economy. While wage convergence is desirable, pay increases that significantly outpace underlying productivity have historically led to boom-bust cycles," S&P said in a statement.
S&P also said it expects the consumption-focused growth to generate wider fiscal and external deficits, increasing the economy's vulnerability to an abrupt downturn over the medium term, though public and external debt is modest.
In August, Fitch Ratings affirmed its projections that Romania will post economic growth of 5.1% this year but also warned of risk of overheating.
In June, the World Bank said it raised its forecast for Romania economic growth in 2017 to 4.4% from 3.7% projected in January.
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