A debate on ways to make the Romanian economy less “euroised” is welcome, say analysts and public officials invited to attend ZF’s open editorial meeting “ZF Expert”, considering the increasingly uncertain prospects of adopting the single currency in 2015, with the National Bank being unable to use its levers to help the economy.
“The fact that the forex market moves are quickly reflected in
inflation prompts this debate on the exchange rate. Whenever there
was an exchange rate depreciation, it was reflected in inflation
the following month. This makes the NBR much more cautious with
interest rate cuts, fearing exchange rate fluctuations,” says Radu
Crăciun, investment manager of Eureko Pensii.
The economy could become less “euroised” if current prices were
expressed only in RON, and the sale of foreign-denominated loans to
the population would be restricted.
“Something needs to be done in order to boost the RON’s
credibility, but we shouldn’t be hypocritical. We can order
merchants to display prices in RON, but we cannot ask them not to
think in euros,” says Adrian Vasilescu, advisor to the NBR
governor.