Romania risks falling into recession if actions are not taken, says former Prime Minister Florin Cîţu, after the INS announced that Romania’s economy has grown below expectations in 2021. However, the PNL president says that the data show a higher growth than budgeted.

“Economic growth is higher than budgeted. Budgeted, it was a real increase of 4.6%, and now we have an increase of 5.6% for 2021. I tell you that there are partial data, I think that the economic growth will go to 6%. Even if it remains at 5.6%, it is still a percentage point above what we had in the budget, so the budget revenues are higher, anyway, compared to last year,” said Cîțu, according to Digi24.

The Romanian economy grew by 5.6% last year, and in the last quarter of 2021 GDP rose by 2.2% compared to the same period in 2020, but decreased by 0.5% compared to the previous quarter, according to data signal published on Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

According to the INS, on a seasonally adjusted series, in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to the previous quarter, the Gross Domestic Product decreased by 0.5%. Compared to the same quarter in 2020, GDP grew by 2.7%, according to Agerpres.

In gross series, compared to the same quarter of 2020, the Gross Domestic Product, in the fourth quarter of 2021, registered an increase of 2.2%. In 2021, compared to 2020, the Gross Domestic Product increased by 5.6%.