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World Bank: Romania is the only EU 10 country having seen its economy shrink in Q3

Romania is the only country in the EU 10 - including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia - that is still in recession in the third quarter of 2010, shows the Economic Report on the EU 10 made public by the World Bank in Warsaw and Bucharest on Thursday.

Chief economist of the World Bank Office in Bucharest, Catalin Pauna explained at a news conference called to launch the Report, that 'In 2010, Romania will register an economic drop of minus 1.9 percent, according to the Report predictions, due to the effects of the governmental austerity programme. This programme was direly necessary, given that when Romania entered the crisis, it was the country with the biggest structural tax deficit and the main problems of the Romanian economy are of a structural nature, but the austerity programme was begun late. If the programme had started earlier, we should already have seen growth', Pauna explained, adding that a major challenge is related to the public spending efficiency.

'There has been sustained increase in the public expenditure in the last ten years, but a proportionate improvement of the results of such expenditure failed to emerge', the World Bank official stressed.

Another problem that the Romanian economy has is the lack of correlation of the priorities in the sectoral policies with the priorities in the state budget.According to the World Bank predictions, the Romanian economy will grow by 1.5 percent in 2011, while the EU 10 countries will return to the pre-crisis levels.

2.77 Million Romanians, 13.3% Of Population, Have Emigrated

The number of Romanians who emigrated stands at 2.77 million this year, accounting for 13.1% of the population, but is expected to drop considerable on the long term, in 10 -15 years, as Romania converges toward Europe, the World Bank said Thursday. According to the World Bank, most Romanians emigrated to Italy, Spain, Hungary, Israel, USA, Germany, Canada, Austria, France and the UK.'On the short term, it is hard to foresee an increase in the number of emigrants because opportunities abroad have disappeared. In the long run, namely in 10 -15 years, I expect emigration numbers to drop substantially as Romania converges toward Europa,' said Catalin Pauna, chief economist with the World Bank in Romania.

He said the dynamics of Romania's gross domestic product at purchasing power parity has seen significant improvement over the past ten years and the convergence process toward the EU average will continue after the crisis.'If we continue to evolve at this rate, we'll reach a threshold beyond which emigration is no longer profitable for Romanian. In 10-15 years we'll have much bigger wages than now,' said Pauna.

Speaking about the migration of doctors and, generally, trained staff, Pauna said it is unrealistic to think wages on this employment segment in Romania would be quick to catch up with those in Western Europe. He said an alternative to highly trained workers leaving the country would be to offer more spots for such jobs in the education system.On the other hand, the number of immigrants in Romania amounts to 132,800 people, over half of which are women. The main countries of origin for immigrants in Romania are Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Syria, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Italy and Germany.

Sursa: http://www.actmedia.eu

Tags: romania years pauna country world economy

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