IDIS experts agree with Economy Ministry's forecasts about industrial growth

Experts of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative (IDIS) “Viitorul” agree with the forecasts that the industrial production this year will increase by 3.6 – 4.5% on 2009, made by the Ministry of Economy, Info-Prim Neo reports. The industrial growth in the first two months of the year was 4.1% following a rise of over 11% in the industrial production volume in the energy sector. The growth rate in the processing industry was very slow, it is said in the Institute's publication “Economic Monitor: analyses and forecasts”, which covers the first quarter. Independent experts consider the industrial growth in the second half of the year will be larger as a result of the recovery of the extractive industry and the construction sector. They say the positive trends in the energy sector will persist if energy efficiency projects are implemented and the legal framework in the area is improved. The Institute forecasts that the global output in agriculture will grow by about 7% in 2010. According to analyst Viorel Chivriga, 2009 was a difficult agricultural year and the risks that determined the reduction in the agricultural production last year will persist this year. “These risks include the populism in implementing agricultural polices, like the lifting of the restrictions on the export of technical sorts of table grape, which did not have effects on the internal and foreign trade and did not influence the purchase prices of grapes on the home market. The prices of technical sorts of grapes decreased to the lowest level in the last decade,” he said. Viorel Chivriga said the agriculture financing policy is too rigid and the agricultural subsidies provided by the state do not produce the expected results. One person in seven abandoned work in agriculture, while the farmland lies fallow.