Government sees economy down 0.5% this year

The Government has adopted the IMF forecast for a 0.5% economic decline this year, with the Finance Ministry to rectify the budget based on this figure in late June or early July.
"The latest figure we received from the National Forecasting Commission (CNP) for nominal GDP in 2010 is 510,0449 billion RON, which amounts to a 0.5% economic decline this year. But it also depends on the GDP deflator," explains Gheorghe Gherghina, secretary of state within the Finance ministry.
Despite optimistic expectations at the beginning of this year, prospects have since gradually worsened.
In April the IMF revised its forecast for this year to 0.8% from a previous 1.3%. One month later, representatives of the Fund said they were expecting a stagnation of the economy, or even a 0.5% contraction against 2009.
The worsening of economic growth prospects comes after a wave of optimism earlier in the year, when some forecasts even pointed to an above 2% GDP growth in 2010.