Vosganian: Romania must be on alert due to world crisis

Romania must remain on alert and monitor carefully the world crisis, on Tuesday said Minister of Economy and Finance Varujan Vosganian in a seminar about the construction and real estate sectors.

"So far, Romania has absorbed these shocks and they cannot be found in the real economy. Any slippage now would be very difficult to manage. The foreign investments were not affected and the world crisis has made Romania even more attractive. The foreign investments have accelerated in our country where the economic growth pace continues to be high. The investments and the exports are the only ways through which Romania can manage efficiently the current account deficit. In 2008, the estimated current account stands at 13.5% of GDP compared with over 14% of GDP recorded in 2007. For 2009, we forecast a rise in exports by 5-6% above the rise in imports, which will lead to a current account deficit of some 12% of GDP", said Varujan Vosganian.

He concluded that Romania has a good fiscal policy and the crises on the big international markets can be avoided by Romania if it does not venture in increasing the mortgage loans through the commercial banks.

BNR Governor Mugur Isarescu said last weekend the world financial crisis made BNR "be on alert" to cushion the possible effects of the financial crisis on Romania.

Agerpres