Lucian Anghel, the president of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) thinks that the recent announcement made by budget minister Liviu Voinea in Brussels regarding Romania’s commitment to enter the Eurozone on January 1, 2019 is the most important economical announcement in Romania this year and should be transformed into a national project.

“2019 is an ambitious target, but not impossible to achieve. After the public announcement it is very important to have a detailed action plan, which we should finish as soon as possible. This plan should set the base for a better living standard for Romanians because this is what the GDP per capita growth means. It means we are more efficient and therefore we should have higher wages,” Lucian Anghel said during the conference “Emerging Funding for the Real Economy”, organized by The Associates.

Anghel pointed out that after Romania’s entry in the European Union the country lacked a project of strategic national importance. “We are wasting too much time arguing why it can’t be done by 2019 when we should be focusing on how to do it”, Anghel said.

Bodgan Olteanu, deputy governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR), said that Romania’s entry in the Eurozone is not an option, but an obligation which Romania assumed when joining the EU. “Our option is to prepare to join the euro in the best conditions possible. From the moment the political decision for the date was made it’s no longer just a political matter. We should all join in and work towards this goal,” Olteanu stated.

However, meeting the real convergence standards for joining the Eurozone won’t be an easy task for Romania, as analysts point out. It will take Romania at least ten years in order to meet the GDP per capita criteria, which is to grow from 60 percent of the EU average, to 70-75 percent.

“Romania should have an 8 percent nominal growth per year to achieve this objective by 2025, assuming that the EU average will grow 3.5 percent per year (in nominal terms). This would mean a 5 percent real growth in GDP per capita. This is not impossible, but we must take into consideration the fact that up until now Romania had a poor evolution compared to other countries in the region such as Poland or the Baltic states”, said Dan Bucsa, analyst for UniCredit Bank in London.

He explained that in order to achieve this goal Romania should continue structural reforms which are essential for significant foreign investments. Countries in Central and Eastern Europe can also use European funds to compensate the low foreign direct investments.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com