Romania posts 6th highest GDP growth rate in Q2 in the EU, lags behind most of its rivals in the region

Romania has registered the sixth highest growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) year-on-year among the 28 European Union member states, being outpaced by most of its rivals in the eastern wing of the EU, according to Eurostat data.

On Friday, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) has announced that Romania’s GDP, the index widely used to measure the size of national economies, rose by 4.1 percent in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period from 2017, to RON 218.8 billion (EUR 47 billion).

In seasonally adjusted series, the growth rate was slightly higher – 4.2 percent.

Eurostat data show that Romania has registered the sixth highest GDP growth rate in the EU, after Malta (5.7 percent), Poland (5 percent), Hungary (4.6 percent), Latvia (4.4 percent), and Slovenia (4.3 percent).

Two EU member states (Ireland and Luxembourg) haven’t released GDP data for Q2 2018.

Compared with the previous quarter, Romania’s GDP rose by 1.4 percent in Q2, the second highest in the EU after Malta.

“Among Member States for which data are available for the second quarter of 2018, Malta (+1.9%), Estonia and Romania (both +1.4%) recorded the highest growth compared with the previous quarter, while the lowest growth was observed in Denmark, Greece, France and Italy (all +0.2%),” Eurostat said.