Last year, the economy grew by 3.8% in real terms, preliminary data from INSTAT shows. But 2.5%, or two-thirds, of the growth was in the construction, real estate and government employment and wage growth sectors.
A distorted economic growth that will likely be followed by a crisis, this is what is observed in the preliminary data published by the Institute of Statistics on Thursday.
Referring specifically to the data for the fourth quarter, INSTAT writes: “Public Administration, Education and Health” marked an increase of 8.30%, followed by the “Construction” activity marked an increase of 7.36%, the “Real Estate” activity with an increase of 6.25%, the “Financial and Insurance Activities” group marked an increase of 2.82%, the “Trade, Transport, Accommodation and Food Services” group marked an increase of 1.14%, the “Arts, Entertainment and Recreation and Other Service Activities” group marked an increase of 0.81% and the “Professional Activities and Administrative Services” group marked an increase of 0.11%.
The sectors in question have different weights and consequently, their contribution to the 3.8% economic growth is as follows: “Construction” with +1.17 percentage points, “Public administration, education and health” with +1.02 percentage points, “Real estate activities” with +0.32 percentage points, “Trade, transport, accommodation and food services” with +0.22 percentage points, “Financial and insurance activities” with +0.05 percentage points, “Arts, entertainment and recreation; other service activities” with +0.02 percentage points, and “Professional activities and administrative services” with +0.01 percentage points.”
In contrast, agriculture and industry, two key sectors that account for a significant share of employment, experienced declines over the past year.
Agriculture, the sector that officially employs over 40% of the workforce, closed the fifth consecutive year of decline. The last time this sector grew was in 2020. During 2025, agriculture contracted further by almost 2%. Industry closed the second consecutive year of decline, with manufacturing, the sector that employs tens of thousands of people across the country, contracting for the third consecutive year.
The two main growth sectors, construction and government, are unstable. The government increased the number of employees and wages over the past year, which will likely soon translate into inflation but not into productivity. Above all, the long-running crisis in agriculture and manufacturing appears to have structural causes that require deep reforms in governance in order to be resolved. /BIRN/
