The annual growth of the economy in the first quarter of this year (Q1), of 2.4% per gross series and 2.7% per seasonally adjusted series, was mainly due to the final consumption expenditure of households, whose volume increased by 3.8%, contributing 2.5% to GDP growth, according to provisional data from the National Institute of Statistics, published on Tuesday.

Investments contributed 0.9% to GDP growth, and exports continued to make a negative contribution of minus 3.2%, according to Agerpres.

“From the point of view of the use of GDP, the increase was mainly due to: final consumption expenditure of households, whose volume increased by 3.8%, contributing by 2.5% to GDP growth; gross fixed capital formation , whose volume increased by 5.9%, contributing 0.9% to GDP growth. A negative contribution to GDP growth was net exports (-3.2%), a consequence of the increase in the volume of imports of goods and services, by 0.8%, compared to the reduction of the volume of exports of goods and services, by 5.5%,” states INS in the provisional data regarding the GDP growth in the first quarter of this year.

Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, the Gross Domestic Product in the first quarter of 2020 was, in real terms, higher by 0.3%. Compared to the same quarter of 2019, the Gross Domestic Product registered an increase of 2.4% on the gross series and by 2.7% on the seasonally adjusted series.