Romania considering economic growth at between minus 1 pct and 1.5 pct this year

Romania is considering an economic growth at between minus one percent (negative growth) and 1.5 percent, Public Finance Minister Gheorghe Pogea said on Thursday after a fresh round of talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials.

'I believe it is possible to stay within minus one and 1.5 percent, while other states in the region have even minus three (percent growth - editor's note)', Pogea said, adding 'no variant is sure'.

This year's state budget is built on 2.5 percent growth of the gross domestic product.

The European Commission anticipates Romania will post 0 - 0.5 percent economic growth this year, Pogea has recently told a private television channel. He has added that the Commission last week revised downwards the projected economic growth of Romania, after having previously estimated the Romanian GDP would expand at 1.8 percent this year.

In 2008 Romania recorded 7.1 percent economic growth, but such pace slowed down to 2.9 percent in the last quarter.

The finance minister announced the talks with the representatives of the European Commission, IMF and World Bank will continue until an agreement is reached.

An IMF mission headed by Jeffrey Franks is visiting Bucharest over March 11-25 in order to continue its assessment of the Romanian macroeconomic conditions.

The delegation of the international lender will hold talks on a possible IMF programme for Romania. Such programme will be part of a multilateral pro-active and safety financial package to be backed by the European Union and the World Bank among other international financial institutions.

If agreed upon, it would be the 11th agreement signed by Romania with the IMF

Rompres