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Country Snapshot - Romania  

HighlightsRankingsQuantitative DataLegislationAnalytical WorkProject Portfolio
  • Eastern Europe & Central Asia
  • Upper middle income
  • 21,449,980 (2011)
  • 7,840
Romania Flag
Below are select highlights for the data included in the profile.

  1. Romania ranks 56th out of 183 economies in Doing Business 2011, reflecting a decrease by 2 points compared to last year. However, positive reforms were recorded in 2011. In Dealing with Construction Permits, Romania amended regulations related to construction permitting to reduce fees and expedite the process. In Closing a Business, substantial amendments to Romania’s bankruptcy laws-introducing, among other things, a procedure for out-of-court workouts-made dealing with insolvency easier.
  2. According to the latest Enterprise Surveys (2009), the top three constraints to firm investment in Romania to be Tax Rates, Inadequately Educated Workforce and Access to Finance. Among the firms surveyed, 64.19% of them identify Tax Rates as a major constraint, compared to 40.08 for the region. Only 42.34% of firms have a line of credit or loans from a financial institution.
  3. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, as reported in June 2011, Romania's economy emerged from two years of recession in the first quarter of 2011, with a surge in exports offsetting falling domestic demand. Unadjusted real GDP grew by 1.7% year on year in the first quarter, the National Statistics Institute said on June 8th, picking up from a 0.6% contraction in the last three months of 2010. Exports surged by 23.6% year on year on the back of buoyant demand from western Europe. Growth was also boosted by an additional working day in the first quarter. This offset a drop in domestic demand, with private consumption falling by 1.7% and fixed investment down by 2.2%
  4. According to the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Report (2009), Romania is ranked between the 50th and 60th percentile for most of the indicators, including Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Control of Corruption, and the Aggregate Indicator. For Regulatory Quality, Romania is above the 70th percentile.
  5. Romania’s economic freedom score is 64.7, making its economy the 63rd freest in the 2011 Index. Its score is 0.5 point better than last year, reflecting improvements in five of the 10 economic freedoms. Romania is ranked 27th out of 43 countries in the Europe region, and its overall score is higher than the world average. Though Romania’s evolving economy has benefited substantially from its openness and flexibility over the past decade, economic dynamism was slowed by the global financial turmoil.