Economic activity expected to drop, prices to rise in Q3Updated: 29-07-2010 | Economy

According to the company managers that took part in a survey conducted by the National Statistics Institute (INS), the economic activity and the number of employees will drop in all sectors in Q3, while the prices will rise, Agerpres informs. According to the INS communique, the managers forecast a 6 per cent drop in production volume within the processing industry in the following three months, with a drop in employees being estimated during that period too.

The processing industry's overall conjunctural balance stands at -13 per cent, reaching -16 per cent in the case of very large companies with 500 employees or more. According to the conjunctural analysis, a steeper drop will be reported in the case of coke and oil products (-45 per cent), metallurgy (-40 per cent) and production of means of transportation (-32 per cent). The construction sector will report a conjunctural balance of -10 per cent in the next three months, while the stock of contracts and orders will drop by 17 per cent. The managers estimate a 17 per cent drop in the number of employees in Q3 of 2010. During the same period the price of construction works will rise by 20 per cent. At the same time, the managers also expect a 24 per cent drop in retail trade.

Another INS report shows that from 2006 to 2008 one third of Romanian companies were engaged in innovative activities that entailed technological and non-technological innovations, while the rest were engaged in non-innovative activities. Ordered by sectors, the industrial sector is more innovative than the services sector. Most product innovators are found in the IT and communications sector (5.7 per cent), while most process innovators are found in the production and distribution of electricity, heating, natural gas and air conditioning.

The IT and communications sector has a share of 12.7 per cent for product and process innovators. The procurement of cars, equipments and software was the main line of activity in which innovative companies were involved in order to execute their innovative activities

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