Over 40 percent of Romanian business leaders are confident in the growth of the businesses they run this year, up from just a quarter of them in 2013, a study by EY reveals.

As for turnover, about 70 percent of the respondents in the study expect a moderate growth, of up to 10 percent this year, while about 20 percent of them expect their business to go up by 20 percent in 2014.

Similar percentages apply to profit growth expectations, with half of the respondents in EY's A new vision for growth study hoping to up profit by 10 percent. About 20 percent of the respondents hope for a double digit growth in profit this year, and only 14 percent see profit growth at above 20 percent for 2014.

The study computed the answers of 177 top Romanian executives, with half of them coming from companies with turnovers above EUR 50 million.

Cost reduction will continue this year, with almost a quarter of the respondents saying they intend to cut costs this year too. Around a third plan to increase productivity. Research and development are slowly gaining ground, and 7 percent of business leaders interviewed believe R&D will be the new battle field, up from just 2 percent a year ago.

“A focus on competitiveness and access to financing are the priorities for 2014 and 2015. […] Access to financing and ability to diversify sources of financing and optimize financing costs have become competitive advantages to a higher degree, so any business strategy has to take them into account,” said Bogdan Ion, Country Managing Partner, EY Romania.

The full survey from EY is here (in English, pdf format).

editor@romania-insider.com