Romania crisis versus opportunities

IT, car industry and agriculture have new opportunities for investors

The information technology, the car industry and agriculture have new opportunities for investors, Minister of Public Finance Gheorghe Pogea said at the 2009 Summit Economic Forum. Pogea mentioned that the information technology sector has reported a constant growth, showed also by the significant presence of the multinationals - HP, Oracle, Cisco, Motorola - in Romania, with the number of specialists being five times higher in Romania compared with Russia. Pogea also stated that Romania was among the few European states with a car industry reporting growth in 2009, from 242,000 units last year up to some 300,000 units. He also specified that 40 foreign suppliers of spare parts opened production units in Romania, with 175 producers functioning in the related horizontal industry. In the last 17 years, investments in this field reached more than EUR 2.5 billion, the Minister of Finance said. He also added that Romania will gradually recover from the economic crisis and that the current government was determined to continue with the reforms, even if some of these reforms were unpopular, for they were meant to reduce the imbalance created in the previous years. Pogea showed that the massive imbalances have raised the exposure of Romania to the downturn of the global economy and he also added the crisis asked
for reforms, acting like an accurate mirror of the structural imbalances in Romania.

Source:Agerpres.

Automotive market, down 56.7% in first 10 months

Sales of new motor vehicles in Romania declined 56.7% in the first ten months of 2009, to 126,606 units, compared with 292,193 units January- October 2008, according to data released by the Association of Romanian Automobile Makers and Importers (APIA). The worst hit were bus sales, down 85.3%, and the sales of heavy trucks (weighing more than 18 tons), which went down a similar percentage. The slump in automobile sales was 53.9%, down to 112,150 units. Domestic output stood at 244,644 motor vehicles, 231,461 of which were automobiles, up 8.1% from the similar period of the year before, and 8.6% as far as the automobiles are concerned. Exports surged 50.5%, to 211.318 motor vehicles, while imports plummeted 57.1%, to 86,691 units. The decline in automobile imports was 54%.

Source: Agerpres.

Mobile phone market value down 30% amid crisis

The number of mobile phones sold on the local market will reach 3.6 million units this year, down by 15.88% against 2008, when retailers sold nearly 4.28 million units, sources on the telecom market told the daily Business Standard, quoting the latest GfK study in this field. Regarding the value of the mobile phone market, this could reach RON 640 million (about EUR 152 million) in 2009, 30.43% lower than in 2008, when this value amounted to RON 920 million (EUR 250 million). A rapid adjustment to the new market conditions and the change of business models helped the phone service market to overcome the peak of the economic crisis, according to officials of the state authorities.

Source: Agerpres
Romania's production of cereals reaches 14 million tonnes
Romania produced approximately 13.88 million tonnes of cereals (wheat, barley, two-row barley,
maize and rice), that is a drop by some 15.5% compared to 2008 (when it reached 16.441 million
tonnes) according to data released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Rural Development
(MAPDR). The total sowed surface went up by 85,500 ha compared to 2008 (to 317,600 hectares). The total surface sowed this year with cereals was 5.039 million hectares, while last year was around 5 million hectares. Source: Agerpres.