BUCHAREST, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Romania's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the same period of the previous year, said the National Institute of Statistics (INS) on Tuesday.
The growth rate was the highest in the European Union (EU) countries, showed a release on the same day of Eurostat, EU's statistical office, which announced a 5.6-percent GDP growth for Romania.
According to INS, the GDP registered a 5.7 percent growth on gross series and 5.6 percent as seasonally adjusted data in the first quarter of this year, and was 1.7 percent higher in real terms than that of the last quarter of 2016.
"An outstanding piece of news for Romania," Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu wrote on his account of social media, stressing that the growth was "much above the initial estimations!"
In the statistics list of Eurostat, Romania was followed by Poland and Lithuania (4.1 percent each), Latvia (3.9 percent), Hungary (3.7 percent) and Bulgaria (3.4 percent).
International financial institutions are optimistic about Romania's economy this year and upgraded their economic growth forecast for the eastern European country in their latest reports.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) last Wednesday increased its projections for Romania's economic growth from 3.7 to 4 percent in 2017, the highest growth level among the European states in which the financial institution operates.
"Consumption will continue to stimulate growth in 2017 and 2018, backed by a rise in the minimum income and wages in the public sector, which are part of the electoral promises of the ruling political party," said the European bank, adding that private investment will be supported by the cancellation of the construction tax and the low cost of funding.
