The National Institute of Statistics has revised down by -0.1% the growth of the Romanian economy from last year previously announced.
According to INS, adjusted for inflation, the GDP grew in 2024 compared to 2023 by only +0.8%, with one of the most significant influences coming from the increase in public sector salaries, as reported by Biziday.
Thus, the sources of economic growth last year were mainly the public sector salaries (increased by 24%) which had an impact on the economic growth of 0.1%.
At the same time, the real economy had a mixed contribution:
- Agriculture -0.2%
- Industry 0%
- Construction -0.2%
- Trade and tourism +0.3%
- IT&C 0%
- Real estate -0.1%
Real estate transactions had the same contribution to the change in GDP (-0.1%) between the two estimates, and the volume of activity remained unchanged from the previous estimate (98.7%).
Professional, scientific, and technical activities; administrative and support service activities did not contribute to GDP growth (+0.0%) in the two estimates, and the volume of activity remained unchanged from the previous estimate (100.1%).
INS also shows that in the IT sector, there was a volume growth in activity of +0.3%, but the value added (salaries and profits) did not increase. This development may be a result of the cancellation of tax incentives for programmers.
On the other hand, official data shows that the majority of the growth came from consumption, with a +0.8% economic growth, of which +0.7% came from higher VAT, excise duties, and other consumption taxes.
An increase in consumption in an election year, as was 2024, is not unusual, but it was closely correlated with a real explosion of the public deficit, which reached a record level of 9% of GDP, as highlighted by Biziday.