Ziarul Financiar - the 3000th capitalism-building day

Romania’s leading business daily has reached its 3000th issue. Read pages 7-14 to see how the Romanian economy has developed over the twelve years since the first issue of the newspaper came out on November 16, 1998.

Launched at the peak of economic crisis, when few would have believed Romania would join the NATO and the European Union in less than a decade, Ziarul Financiar was the supporter of capitalism from the start at a time when the word was not part of the vocabulary of the politicians in Romania yet.
In 1998, Romania’s gross domestic product stood at 30 billion dollars, it now stands at 170 billion dollars (120 billion euros). Exports had barely reached 8 billion dollars for years on end back then, they are now at over 45 billion dollars (34 billion euros).
There was hardly an analyst among those Ziarul Financiar quoted at the time that believed this country could get foreign investment inflows of 9 to 10 billion dollars a year, considering that from 1990 through 1998, i.e. over nine years, the cumulated stock had reached 2 billion dollars.
Ziarul Financiar has become, issue by issue, after as difficult a beginning as the economic conditions in the 1998-2000 period were, the front page of business, that is the premier source of information for the domestic business sector and the most powerful business publication in Romania.
Since 2004, Ziarul Financiar has been releasing a series of Yearbooks – “Most Valuable Companies in Romania”, “Biggest Players in the Economy”, “Top Transactions” “Who’s Who in Business” now at their fifth or sixth edition each. They were published out of a need for references, of a need to know who really matters in the Romanian business sector, who the people and companies moving the market are.
At the same time, Ziarul Financiar has become the main player on the business meetings market, with its “Night of the Hard ROL” (the redenomination of the currency) in 2005 and the “Launch of private pensions” in 2007 tied to major events in the Romanian economy.
The economy has been going through one of the most difficult periods after 1990 over the last two years, but it is only these difficulties that will reveal who truly believes in the market economy ideas, in the value generated by effort and creativity, in innovation and in the freedom of capital, people, ideas and money movement.