Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romania’s economy

  • January 10, 2024

    January 10, 2024

    Economy – The Romanian economy grew by 1.8% last year, by 0.8 % less than previously estimated, shows a World Bank report. The report also revised downwards the estimates regarding the evolution of the Romanian economy in 2024 and 2025, when the growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product would be 3.3% and 3.8%, respectively. According to the World Bank, the world economy will slow down for the third consecutive year, up to 2.4%.



    Partnership – The Romanian Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, congratulated Gabriel Attal on his nomination to the position of Prime Minister of France. The Romanian PM states that he is ready to work together with his new counterpart to strengthen the Romanian – French strategic partnership. Attal, a former Education Minister, was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron to form the new government of France, after the former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne resigned. At 34, Gabriel Attal, with studies in political sciences, becomes the youngest prime minister in the history of France, according to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Paris.



    Free travel – Almost 2,000 young Romanians aged 18 will receive a free travel permit to explore the diversity of Europe, as part of the DiscoverEU initiative, a program funded by Erasmus+. They will travel mainly by train between March 2024 and May 2025, to learn new things about the history and cultural heritage of Europe and meet people from all over the continent. So far, over 11,600 young Romanians have benefited from such a travel permit.



    Water polo — Romania’s national mens water polo team won Group D of the European Championship in Croatia, after defeating the Slovakian team, score 8-7, on Tuesday evening, in Dubrovnik. In the previous matches, the Romanians defeated the Netherlands and Slovenia. They will play a play-off match for qualification for the quarterfinals against Group B bottom-placed team, Georgia, in Zagreb, on Thursday. At the European Womens Championship, organized in the Netherlands simultaneously with the mens, Romania ranked 14thout of 16 participating teams.



    Flu – At least nine people sick with the flu have died since the beginning of this cold season in Romania. The Romanian Health Ministry announces that there is currently no flu epidemic in the country, but medical units are facing an accelerated increase in the number of respiratory viruses’ cases, especially flu. The situation is also complicated by the acute lack of doctors, the expert in health policies, Emilian Imbri, told Radio Romania News and Current Affairs Channel.



    Under financing – Family doctors in Romania point out that their budget allocation has been reduced by 25% in 2024, compared to 2022. They argue that the system is already underfunded and that the decrease in income will further deepen the already existing shortage of family doctors. The president of the national family doctors’ society, Dina Mergeani, states that the permanent centers operate with the doctors’ own money, they have not yet been paid for the October – December period, and the suspension of their activity would block the emergency rooms. (LS)

  • Romanian Economic Standing in Europe

    The most recent data from Eurostat, the European Office of Statistics, shows growth in industrial output in the Eurozone, as well as across the EU by 0.6% in September compared to August. Romania is among the countries with the highest monthly growth rate, more precisely in fifth place among the 28 member states of the union, with an output growth of 2.4%, behind only Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Hungary. According to Cristian Parvu, general secretary of the Romanian Business Association, this is a good performance, but one should not forget a range of structural problems, mainly related to the dependence on exports:



    “The fact that Romania still has growth potential in exports is positive, and should make us happy, because this has to do with people, with jobs. At the same time, this sort of self-praise should be moderated by a few elements that no one brings up. One of them is the trade deficit, considering that natural gas imports fell by 65% as compared to last year, which shows that, instead of producing more and with higher value, we import. The second comment would be that our exports have the same extremely limited structure, and there should be a closer analysis to explain why Romania, a country that has oil, should import so much of it. And finally, in industry Romania is still extremely dependent on foreign demand, therefore it has a vulnerability which could, at any time, turn into a threat.”



    Cristian Parvu points out that most of Romania’s exports go to European countries. Although this was seen as a positive thing before the crisis, now it has become a risk factor, considering that the Eurozone does not seem to have sorted out its structural issues. At the same time, a Bloomberg analysis notes that the Romanian executive has kept expenditure under control in order to keep the deficit below the 3% GDP ceiling set by the EU, which caused Romanian 10-year bonds to go from 5.3% interest to 3.7%. Statistics show that, in late October, Romania’s budget had a surplus, and, as part of the budget adjustment, more money was allocated to public works such as day cares, roads and sewers. According to Bloomberg, this expenditure may help Romania’s economic recovery.