Romania was affected by the economic crisis because of some vulnerability that could have been observed since 2008, the IMF representative for Romania and Bulgaria Tony Lybek declared, addressing the current account deficit, public debt, but also other unbalances. The IMF rep explained that the strategy for coming out of the downturn needs to be based on four piers: the European Central Bank coordination initiative, several fiscal measures based on sustainability and predictability, a monetary policy insuring the stability of prices and a restrictive fiscal policy. "It is true that the inflation aims have been overtaken during the last years, but this is due to loose fiscal policies", Lybek added.
Raiffeisen Bank chief economist Ionut Dumitru
Industry came out of the recession. The unemployment rate is lowest in comparison with the new member states. Others record 220%, while we record 7%. I heard the question why did we need the IMF money. The problem must be viewed from a different angle. Without this money, the adjustment would have been much more abrupt. The money makes it easier to go through the crisis. The leu is much more stable. The country risk perception improved. If we look at the deficit and the economic growth, we notice that the budgetary policy accentuated some vulnerabilities, consumed ammunition when it wasn't supposed to. We risk a public debt explosion.The international reserves have given us a good position, having the choice to use them to make the economic adjustment more tolerable.
Central Bank (BNR) chief economist
Foreign investors become increasingly sceptic in financing countries that live on debt. We had an honourable investment rate, namely 20% of the GDP. An extremely big part of the GDP was made-up by consumption - 84.5%. The price that Romania paid for this huge consumption was the current account deficit.
