Treichl: Romania should discuss an agreement with IMF

It would be reasonable for Romania to start negotiations for an agreement with the IMF in order to be shielded against superficial assessments from foreign analysts, says Andreas Treichl, CEO of Erste Bank and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the BCR (Romanian Commercial Bank). “I don’t think Romania will have problems, despite the criticism it is facing, I don’t think it can end up in the same situation as Hungary, but under the current circumstances, I think the sensible thing to do would be for it to start negotiations straight away with a view to an agreement with the IMF,” says Treichl. He says he is convinced that Romania’s economy will continue to grow faster than the majority of the other economies in the region. “A matter of concern is to what extent politicians will take the measures that are due. Romania urgently needs massive investments in infrastructure, in roads and the railway system”. The head of Erste said foreign analysts have three major areas of discontent when it comes to Romania, but the assessments are usually superficial: the large foreign deficit is a fact, but an analysis of the component parts shows, with many imports being meant for production: the high percentage of loans in foreign currency can be an issue, but one has to distinguish between loans in euros and those in other currencies, whose volume is low; the third issue is whether politicians are able to take the measures due.