November 13 (SeeNews) - Romania's gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an annual 7.1% in the third quarter of 2009 and was 7.4% lower on the year in the first nine months of 2009, a flash estimate of the country's statistics board, INS, indicated on Friday.
The third-quarter GDP fell by 0.7% from the second quarter, the INS said. It will issue preliminary detailed data for Romania’s third-quarter and nine-month GDP on December 3.
The year-on-year comparison is based on seasonally unadjusted data, while the quarter-on-quarter figure is based on seasonally adjusted data.
In order to comply with the requirements of the European Union, beginning in 2009 INS started publishing quarterly flash-estimates of the GDP growth in the respective quarter compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year as a gross index, and compared to the previous quarter as a seasonally adjusted index.
Romania's GDP is expected to shrink by some 8.0% this year, after expanding by a real 7.1% in 2008.
The country's economy contracted by an annual 7.6% in real terms in the first half of 2009, mainly on weak performance of agriculture and construction industry.