September 28 (SeeNews) - The economy of Southeastern Europe (SEE) is expected to expand by 4% in 2016, Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) said on Wednesday, increasing its previous projection of 3.2% growth.
The economic growth of the SEE region is projected at 3.3% for 2017, up from 3.2% forecast in June, RBI said in a press release.
RBI describes the SEE region as the area comprising six countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Serbia.
"Taking into account the remarkable growth of employment and, at the same time, the significantly reduced levels of unemployment, private consumption remains the main driver of growth in the SEE region," Raiffeisen Bank International added.
RBI also said it increased its projection for Bulgaria's 2016 gross domestic product (GDP) growth by 0.5 percentage points to 3.0%.
Romania's economy is expected to grow by 5.2% in 2016, which represents a significant increase from bank's previous projection of 4.0% growth.
Croatia's 2016 GDP growth forecast was increased to 2.3%, from the previous 1.5%.
The RBI did not provide GDP projections for the other three countries in the SEE region.