Romanian economy reaches the last stage of the current downturn, says Kollatz-Ahnen

Romania’s economy has already reached its minimum point and now it is passing through the last stage of the current crisis, which implies “huge” difficulties concerning the public budget, thinks the vice-president of European Investment Bank (EIB), Mathias Kollatz-Ahnen. “The crisis is not over yet. Sometimes people are too pessimistic while other times they are too optimistic. Each of every statement that affirmed that the turmoil has finished – more or less – was clearly too optimistic”, says Kollatz-Ahnen, with the occasion of a press conference in Bucharest. He expects a small recovery of the local economy in 2010 and emphasized that it was crucial for Romania to implement successfully projects that implies European funds. “The coming out from crisis will depend on the success of the structural funds implementation. If any country like Romania has access to them, there is a natural anti-crisis measures package”, says Kollatz-Ahnen. He added that Romania would not have a stable recovery without some significant investments. Romanian authorities and International Monetary Fund experts expect an increase of 1.3 percent of the local economy this year.

Anda Dragan