Coface: Difficult year ahead for Romania, despite 1.5% growth forecast

Romania is expected to post a figure for economic growth between 1 and 1.5 percent and a budget deficit of around 3.5 percent in 2012, according to Cristian Ionescu, Coface country cluster manager for Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. “2012 will be a difficult year for the Romanian economy, in a dark European economic context,” he added. Moreover, Coface has kept the country risk rating for Romania to ‘B’, which indicated an unstable economic and political environment. The Prime Minister recently said that Romania posted an economic growth of nearly 2 percent in 2011, above the official target of 1.5 percent, and the country also managed to reach its budget deficit target of 4.4 percent last year. He added that the main priorities for 2012 include maintaining jobs and investments and increased absorption of EU funds, which are essential for “maintaining the 2.1 percent economic growth forecast for 2012”. Coface Romania was established in 1996 and is member of Coface Central Europe Holding, headquartered in Austria. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: Photoxpress.com