About 42% of CFA members expect the economy to grow by more than 4% this year, above the market average forecasting a 2.8% GDP increase, said Mihai Purcărea, a member of the CFA Romania Board, on Thursday.

“Last year we estimated that the economy will grow by 3%, but what happened was that it contracted by almost 4%. The current market forecast sees a 2.8% increase in Romania’s GDP. Now let’s see what the members expect. So almost half of the members, or 42%, respectively, expect the economy to grow by more than 4% this year, a big comeback, and more than the current market forecast,” said Mihai Purcărea, according to Agerpres.

Regarding inflation, he recalled that last year CFA members estimated an inflation of 3-3.5%, but the average inflation was lower. For this year, market expectations are of 2.8%, and CFA members forecast inflation of 3-3.5%.

Regarding the exchange rate, Purcărea mentioned that in the past years it was a predictable one, with an annual depreciation of 2% for the leu. Last year, CFA members estimated an exchange rate of 4.8-4.9 lei/euro, which was in line with what happened. For this year, the market expectations for the exchange rate at the end of the year are 4.94 lei/euro. CFA members expect a similar exchange rate for 2022, respectively 69% of them estimate an exchange rate of 4.9-5 lei/euro. At the same time, 19% of the survey participants expect a rate of 5-5.1 lei/euro, and 3% over 5.1 lei/euro.

Robor’s 3-month interest rate could reach 1.5-2% by the end of December this year, according to 44% of CFA study participants.

The BET-XT Total Return Index could increase of up to 10%, in the opinion of 38% of participants.