The economic and social situation in Romania

In 2009, Romania ignored the signs of the financial crisis which manifested visibly in EU and North America, and entered into this crisis unprepared and later than other countries. Therefore, the effects of the crisis were not mitigated by preventive measures, and nor after entering the crisis, were real corrective measures taken, except measures to reduce public spending. But these measures were not homogeneous in all public spending areas.

A lack of balance and pro-cyclical fiscal and budgetary policies were aggravating factors, but the economic crisis in Romania started from the overconsumption behaviour of the private sector and the current account deficit.

Romania's economy remains anchored in low and medium skilled labour, relatively low use of technologies and based on low value added industries. Productivity is affected and business models used allow productivity gains based only on wage cuts, which basically is a powerful additional stress factor.

The structure of employment in Romania shows a serious lagging behind compared to the other European countries economies structures, being one of the causes of low productivity in general. Although there has been some recovery, Romania continues to be the EU country with the most inadequate distribution of employment in economic sectors. This structure affects the ability of real convergence in order to join the euro zone.