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Romania fulfills three out of five convergence criteria

Romania fulfills three of the five convergence criteria (Maastricht criteria), respectively value of the annual government deficit, gross government debt and exchange fluctuations, announced on Friday Chief economist with Romania's National Bank Valentin Lazea, on the occasion of a roundtable on the 'Social economic evolutions in Romania: valuing the opportunities offered by the European Union Lisbon Strategy for development and employment'.

As for the annual government deficit to GDP (below 3 percent of the GDP, according to Maastricht criteria), Romania recorded in 2007 a value of 2.5 percent of the GDP and the Government plans to attain a value of the structural deficit of 0.9 percent of the GDP by 2010. As regards the gross government debt, Romania reported last year a value of 13 percent of the GDP, under conditions in which Maastricht criteria set up a ceiling of 60 percent of the GDP. Valentin Lazea also said that in connection with the exchange rate fluctuations (plus-minus 15 percent of the reference value, according to convergence criteria), Romania plans to join the exchange rate mechanism (ERM II) under the European Monetary System sometime between 2011 and 2012, but even at present the fluctuations reported to this value did not exceed a 15 percent threshold. He pointed out that the challenges Romania are confronted with are linked to inflation rate - 6.6 percent at the end of 2007, exceeding the 2.8 percent reference value. 'We fail to meet the requirements at this chapter, but the good news is that since 2007 we are no longer at the squad's end, but part of the Eastern European countries' squad, overtaken by states as Bulgaria, Lithuania or Estonia), said Valentin Lazea, underscoring that at international level just Brazil and Thailand succeeded not to exceed the inflation target among all emergent economies. In terms of Romania's domestic vulnerabilities, BNR Chief economist mentioned that exports volume outpaced the imports one and the aggressive extension of the non-governmental credit by the commercial banks, to which the fact that more than 54 percent of this credit's value is foreign currency denominated is added. At the level of the last convergence criteria - long-term interest rates - Valentin Lazea said that in 2007 it accounted for 7.1 percent as against the reference value of 6.4 percent and explained that its evolution in the period to come is closely linked to the inflation rate. Valentin Lazea also said that a series of important services - as tourism and transport - contribute to the current account deficit, a unique situation at the level of the EU member states. As well, he added, even though foreign currency entered Romania due to Romanians working abroad, one should not ignore the exiting foreign currency amounts, due to foreign citizens employed in Romania. According to Lazea, foreign debt stood at 37.8 billion euros in 2006, but more worrying is the fact that its growth pace is 32.5 percent higher than at the end of 2006. Sursa: http://www.rompress.ro

Tags: romania percent foreign lazea valentin government convergence criteria value bnr

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