BUCHAREST, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Romania's M&A market valued at 5 billion euros (5.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, down 12 percent year-on-year from a year ago, yet the transaction numbers exceeded the level of previous years, according to a report on Romanian M&A Outlook presented by PwC Romania on Wednesday.

The total of 50 billion euros came from more than 170 transactions registered last year in the country, reported the official Agerpres news agency, citing the PwC report.

The decline of volume was in line with the evolution of the Central and Eastern European market, said the report, adding that the number of transactions is on the rise compared to the previous years, when 130-140 transactions per year were registered on average.

The most dynamic areas in 2018 were IT & C, medical and pharmaceutical services, real estate and industrial production, showed the report, adding that financial services were also among the top dynamic sectors a year ago.

According to PwC, Romania has seen the highest value of trading activity in 2017 and 2018, outperforming the previous peak from the period 2006 to 2008. Current financing and growth opportunities for Romanian companies are both in the capital market and in the M&A area.

A development similar to that in the past two years was anticipated for 2019, both in terms of market value and the number of transactions, according to PwC.