October 15 (SeeNews) - Romania's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth is projected to reach 4% in 2019 before slowing to 3.5% in 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in the October edition of its World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday.
In its previous WEO report published in April, the IMF said it expected Romania's economy to expand by 3.1% in 2019 and by 3.0% in 2020.
The IMF's October forecast for Romania's 2019 economic growth is below the government's projection of a 5.5% increase.
Romania's consumer prices are expected to rise 4.2% year-on-year in 2019 and by 3.3% in 2020, the IMF said. The country's consumer prices rose by 3.5% year-on-year in September, compared to an increase of 3.9% in the previous month, according to the national statistical office. On October 3, the central bank maintained its monetary policy rate at 2.50%.
Unemployment rate is projected to rise from 4.3% in 2019 to 4.6% in 2020, according to the IMF forecast.
The country's current account deficit is forecast at 5.5% of GDP this year and 5.2% of GDP in 2020. This compares with a current account gap of 4.5% of GDP in 2018, according to the IMF.
Romania current accountwas in deficit of 7.080 billion euro ($7.813 billion) in the first eight months of 2019, compared to a gap of 6.104 billion euro in the same period of last year.
($= 0.9083 euro)