EIB vice-president: Romania's economy is undergoing the last crisis stage

The Romanian economy is currently going through the last stage of the economic crisis after getting over the hardest part, European Investment Bank (EIB) vice-president Mathias Kollatz-Ahnen declared, quoted by Romanian press agency Mediafax. He explained that, in general, a crisis has four stages, which the Romanian economy is also undergoing. The last stage represents "huge" public budget difficulties.

"The crisis is not over. Sometimes people are too pessimistic, sometimes too optimistic. Each statement claiming the crisis was more or less over has obviously been too optimistic", Mathias Kollatz-Ahnen said.

"The problems of the financial sector occur first in a crisis, and these were not caused by Romania. Next is the effect contagion for the real economy and later the minimum point is reached. Romania has already reached the minimum, and now a slight increase follows, but which is accompanied by huge difficulties addressing the public budget. (...) We are currently in the fourth stage, which is, nevertheless, part of the crisis", the EIB official carried on.

He anticipates a slight economic recovery and adds that it is crucial for Romania to successfully implement the projects involving European funds. Mathias Kollatz-Ahnen added that Romania would not have a stable recovery after this crisis if it is not likely to attract big investments. Romania's economy contracted by 7.1% and for this year the Romanian authorities and the International Monetary Fund estimate a 1.3% growth.

EIB loans to Romania hit EUR1.48M record high in 2009

The European Investment Bank's total lending in Romania reached the record level of EUR1.48 billion in 2009, the international bank said in a statement Thursday. In 2008, EIB's financing to Romania stood at EUR1.3 billion. Some of the main projects financed by the EIB in 2009 include a EUR400 million loan to Ford Motor Co. for its plant in Craiova, southern Romania, as well as overall loans of EUR351 million to support local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For 2010, EIB financing is estimated at EUR1.5 billion. The target projects are mainly in the energy and SMEs sectors.Since 1990, EIB's lending in Romania reached EUR7.7 billion.