Romania, economic prospects worse than expected

The economic prospects of Romania are worse than I believed until not long ago, declared the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Thomas Mirow, for Radio Romania Actualitati, quoted by Agerpres.

In this context, he recalled that the institution has cut from three to one per  cent the prediction of economic growth of Romania in 2009. "We are focusing in Romania on supporting the banks and we have launched in this respect, at the beginning of this week, the first bonds in RON," the EBRD president added. He also stressed that the decision to issue bonds will have an immediate impact and is an appropriate method to meet the crisis. The bonds have a value of RON 115 mln, a maturity of 10 years, and will be listed with the stock exchanges from Bucharest and London.

Thomas Mirow warned that the financial support granted to the western banks must
consider also the branches of those banks from the emerging countries. "It would be
politically and morally irresponsible if the countries from Central and Eastern Europe, which have recently become part of the world economy, feel pushed aside as soon as a crisis appears. In many branches from the region there are liquidities, but because of the new risk standards the banks do no longer offer the same financial support packages," the EBRD official stressed.

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