Gross Domestic Product down 7.7%

The Gross Domestic Product in the nine months to September fell by 7.7% in real terms compared with the corresponding period last year, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the National Bureau of Statistics. The nominal value in current prices was 44.166 billion lei. According to the Bureau, the gross value added in economy decreased by 8.3% - in industry – by 23.3%, in agriculture, hunting, forestry and fish breeding – by 10.6%, in the service sector – by 4.5%. The output in the construction sector dropped by 30.8%, in the transport sector and communications – by 14.8%, in retail and wholesale trade – by 4.5%. However, the output in the “other services” sector of rose by 5.9% compared with January-September last year, making up 52.2% of the service sector and 34.2% of the GDP, in contrast to 46.2% and 29.5% in 2008. The rate of the gross value added (the ratio of the gross value added to the production volume) in economy was by 3.0 percentage points higher than in the corresponding period last year. This is due to the decrease in the share of the intermediary consumption in the production volume from 62.6% in January-September 2008 to 59.6% in January-September 2009. The value of the taxes on products, including imported ones, collected into the national public budget fell by 8.4%, making up 16.2% of the GDP, as against 17.9% over the first nine months of last year. The exports of goods and services decreased from 18.5% in January-September last year to 16.7% in January-September this year. Though the imports of goods and services are larger than the exports, the discrepancy between exports and imports was not so wide as in the same period last year – 1:0.50 compared with 1:0.44.