PM sees sound economic growth

Romania’s economic growth is sound and consumption will increase by 4% this year, PM Adrian Nastase said on Wednesday. “2003 will be a historical moment for Romania, set to take many people by surprise,” the PM says. Last year’s economic growth reached 4.7%, with the projected 2003 growth amounting to 5.2%. Romania actually registered more than 10% economic growth in 2001 and 2002, but this was just a rebound from the 1997-2000 decline. Back then, the economy had fallen 13%. The past three years’ growth came at a time of international recession. Considering its experience between 1994-1996 when PDSR, the current PSD (Social Democrat Party) was in power and indebtedness registered a substantial increase, which turned out to be hardly sustainable in the end, the analysts are questioning the “soundness” of the growth posted in the last two years. “Although it is not my intention to go into technical details, I still have to provide a few examples related to the trend of certain synthetic indicators: the economic growth is due to the balanced contribution of the domestic and international demand, the sharp inflation decline, which led to a global stabilisation, as well as attaining a proper balance between consumption and investments,” Nastase told Mediafax in an interview. ZF