Pauna, WB: Romania’s economic growth in Q1 was robust, based on private consumption, exports

The private consumption, the exports, which have increased, and the investments, mainly the private ones, were the basis for Romania’s economic growth in the first quarter, the economist of the World Bank (WB) Office in Bucharest, Catalin Pauna, said on Friday.

He appreciates that the economy’s advance of 4.1 percent in the first quarter, compared to the same period in 2014, is robust – the highest in the European Union – and balanced.

“We see that slowly, the investments move from the negative contribution in the positive side of the economic growth, so, they start again to become a growth engine. We speak mainly by private investments. Unfortunately, the evolution of public investment is not in line with the private ones and this is still due to a low uptake of EU funds. Hopefully, in the next programming period 2014-2020, it will be seen an increase in public investment,” WB representative said.

According to him, export growth potential is still high on medium and long term.

“We believe that the growth potential is much greater than what Romania showed in recent years. The economic growth is expected to be around 4 percent this year, which will probably be one of the highest in the EU,” Pauna noted.

He added that at the same time “there are significant inefficiencies in many areas,” which, if it were removed, “would lead to a growth rate, probably, healthier.” “One of the areas where we should focus more attention is the public sector reform,” Pauna suggests.

He also stated that the energy is an important sector in Romania, which requires large investments and in the next 15 years WB’s economist estimates it should be invested here about EUR 30 billion. “The most of investments must come from the private sector, also,” Pauna concluded.