Domestic economy to grow by 2.8 pct in 2015 according to EBRD

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has maintained the forecasts as regards Romania's economy which is expected to advance by 2.8 percent in 2015, indicates the latest regional report of the financial institution.

“We have kept our forecasts unchanged for the region’s largest economy, Romania, at 2.8 per cent, as rising confidence and investment and lower oil prices may be balanced by increased geopolitical tensions and Eurozone uncertainties”, states the report in question.

At regional level, the EBRD prognosis with respect to the country where it operates foresees a weaker evolution compared with the September 2014 forecast, primarily reflecting the high economic weight of Russia along with other commodity exporters in the region, but with major differentiation among regions.

While growth in the transition region is estimated to have decelerated to 1.6 percent last year from 2.3 percent a year before, the EBRD anticipates for 2015 a negative growth in the region (-0.3 percent, compared with our forecast of +1.7 percent in September).

Ukraine and Russia will see major economic drops, by 5 percent and by 4.8 percent, respectively, according to the EBRD report which outlines that growth rates in other commodity exporting economies will see a sharp decline, whereas commodity importing countries will see a modest pickup in growth from 2.1 per cent in 2014 to 2.4 per cent in 2015.

Last week, the World Bank announced a revised estimation on Romania’s economic progress of 2.9 percent of the Gross Domestic Product this year.