Romanian executives get more pessimistic while elsewhere spirits go up

While other central Europeans started to feel more optimistic about businesses in their country, Romanians were actually slightly pessimistic since the beginning of he year, shows a recent survey by Deloitte Central Europe. Romanians' business sentiment index went down in the first quarter of this year, while elsewhere in Europe a modest improvement in business sentiment was acknowledged. However, this covers the short term business perspectives. Business people in Central Europe are more optimistic about key issues such as access to financing, revenues from sales and capital expenditures in the next 12 months. Expectations about Romania's economy stayed at a similar level to the fourth quarter last year, but Romanian executives are more pessimistic about the financial perspectives of the companies they run. Only 20 percent of the respondents expect an improvement. Similarly, access to lending is hard to obtain, 53 percent of them believe. “Even if the results don't cast a good light over the Romanian business environment, I would interpret those as a sign of prudence,” said George Mucibabici, president of Deloitte Romania.