Romania’s industrial output contracted by 2.1% m\/m (seasonally-adjusted terms) and 5.2% y\/y in February, accumulating a 3.9% y\/y decline for the first two months of the year, according to the statistics office INS.<\/p>\n
In the core manufacturing sector, the industrial decline was even steeper: -2.7% m\/m and \u00a0-6.1% y\/y, resulting in a 4.3% y\/y contraction for the first two months of the year.<\/p>\n
The new orders’ value does not bode well for the industrial recovery expected by the government this year: it contracted by 0.2% y\/y in February and by 1.8% y\/y in the first two months of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The state forecasting body already estimated a severe 3.6% y\/y industrial contraction for Q1 versus 0.4% y\/y advance projected last winter for the whole year.<\/p>\n
Romania’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which measures the activity level of purchasing managers in the manufacturing sector, inched down in March to 46.9 points (3.1 points below the neutral 50-point benchmark) from 48.3 in February, marking the ninth consecutive month of contraction, according to BCR, part of Erste Bank, which compiles the index.<\/p>\n
Romania’s industry has been in a contractionary mode for years, reaching in February a level that was 8.1% (7.3% for the core manufacturing sector) below the average in 2019 \u2013 before the Covid crisis.<\/p>\n