With an 8% lower GDP in 2009, Romania gets in front of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in a central and Eastern Europe top 10, according to a World Bank analysis published on Wednesday, October 28. Regarding the budget deficit, Romania is only behind Latvia and Lithuania. The analysis also shows that Romania is the only country of the 10 considered which adopted only one measure in response to the economic crisis, addressing the labour market, out of a 9 measures set stipulated in the document.
The World Bank report analysing the UE10 economic situation (that is in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) launched on Wednesday, October 28, reads that when the crisis burst, the economic activity on the UE10 financial markets stabilised.
Nevertheless, most of the countries are undergoing a strong economic contraction this year and the recovery seems to be weak and unequal, the cited document shows.
The GDP contraction: Romania ranks 4th
The future economic increase is expected to be lower than what it was before the crisis. The region is forecast to go through a general 4.2% contraction in 2009, 1% more in 2010 and 3.6% in 2011.
The biggest drops are expected in 2009 in Latvia - 18%, Lithuania - 18.5% and Estonia - 14%. Romania is next, with 8.5% according to the IMF or 7.7% according to national authorities. The smallest GDP shrinkage will be recorded in the Czech Republic - 4.3%, followed by Slovakia and Bulgaria.
Budget deficit: Romania ranks 3rd
The World Bank analysis indicates that the UE10 budget deficits are expected to double in 2009 and 2010 against the initial estimates. According to the IMF prognosis, the increase will be from 2.7% of the GDP in 2008 to around 5.8% in 2009 and 6% in 2010. Except for Bulgaria, al
