Romania 3Q GDP Sees 4th Largest Decline In EU

Compared with the previous quarter, Romania’s GDP declined 0.7% in the third quarter from a 1.1% contraction in the April-June period, EU’s statistics office Eurostat said in a flash estimate.

In the second quarter, European Union’s GDP declined by 0.3%.

Compared with the same quarter of 2008, Romanian GDP decreased by 7.1% in the third quarter, also the fourth largest economic contraction in the EU bloc.

The EU’s GDP decreased by 4.3% on the year in July-September.

The sharpest annual economic contractions in the EU bloc were reported in Estonia (-15.3% from the third quarter of 2008), Lithuania (-14.3%) and Hungary (-8%).

In the third quarter, euro-zone GDP rose 0.4% on the quarter, but was down 4.1% on the year in seasonally adjusted data, according to Eurostat.