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Romania’s economic expansion unexpectedly accelerated in the first quarter, probably because of a pick-up in exports and industry.

Gross domestic product increased 4.3 percent from a year earlier, compared with 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter, according to a preliminary estimate, the Bucharest-based National Statistics Institute said Wednesday by e-mail. The median forecast of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for 2.6 percent growth. GDP rose a seasonally adjusted 1.6 percent from the previous three months.

Romania, whose economy relies mostly on car exports from Renault SA and Ford Motor Co. for growth, wants to boost consumption by cutting the value-added tax for food products next month. The government is seeking to speed the catch-up process to wealthier western European countries in a bid to join the euro area in 2019.

“The quarterly advance was probably driven by all demand components: consumption, investments and exports,” economists at Raiffeisen Bank Romania SA, including Ionut Dumitru, said in an e-mailed note. The VAT cut “could result in slightly faster dynamics of real GDP.”

The leu was little changed against the euro at 4.4637 as of 9:20 a.m. in Bucharest. The yield on the benchmark euro-denominated 10-year bond increased 12 basis points, or 0.12 percentage point, to 2.44 percent.

Full fourth-quarter GDP data will be released June. 4.