Investors become more optimistic about Romania's economy

Investors have become more optimistic about Romania's economic situation in the November-January period compared to the three previous months, according to a Reuters/OeKB opinion poll about the confidence in business in Central and East European states.Thus, the confidence index in business in Romania has grown by 11 points in the analysed period, from zero points in the previous three months. At the beginning of 2009 the index was -8 points.

Of Central and Eastern European countries, investors showed the highest confidence in Poland (34 points), followed by the Czech Republic (29 points), Slovakia (27 points) and Russia (20 points). Romania with 11 points ranks fifth.The business confidence index in Bulgaria and Hungary was 5 points and 1 point respectively over November-January.

The Reuters opinion poll showed a 6 point increase of confidence index in business in Central and Eastern Europe to 16 points from 10 points over August-October. The present economic situation in the area was evaluated with three points by participants in the study, as against -3 points in the previous three months.

The expectation index for business advanced to 29 points from 23 and the perception of economic prospects has grown slightly by one point to 19 points.The opinion poll analysed the investors' perception about economies of ten Central and East European states - Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Bulgaria, Hungary and Ukraine.