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→Economy of Romania
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After World War II Romanian manufacturing underwent a radical structural change. Three branches became much more important: engineering and metalworking accounted for 25.8 percent of all industrial production in 1990, compared with 13.3 percent in 1950, while electricity and fuels increased their share from 13.2 to 19 percent and chemicals from 3.1 to 9.6 percent. Two other branches, metallurgy and building materials, showed a slight relative advance. The main relative declines were in wood processing and paper, textiles and clothing, and food processing. | After World War II Romanian manufacturing underwent a radical structural change. Three branches became much more important: engineering and metalworking accounted for 25.8 percent of all industrial production in 1990, compared with 13.3 percent in 1950, while electricity and fuels increased their share from 13.2 to 19 percent and chemicals from 3.1 to 9.6 percent. Two other branches, metallurgy and building materials, showed a slight relative advance. The main relative declines were in wood processing and paper, textiles and clothing, and food processing. | ||
--->[[Manufacturing-Romania|>>>Read More.<<<]] | --->[[Manufacturing-Romania|>>>Read More.<<<]] | ||
*Finance | |||
The initial euphoria after the 1989 revolution subsided during the 1990s as foreign investment declined. The financial stability of Romania was threatened at various times during this period by severe inflation. In an attempt to lower the inflation rate, the Romanian currency, the leu, was revaluated in 2005. The National Bank of Romania, founded in 1880, implements the monetary policy of the Ministry of Finance, managing budgetary cash resources and issuing currency. The Bucharest Stock Exchange opened in 1995, and by 1999 hundreds of companies were being traded. By 1998 there were dozens of banks in Romania, including foreign, domestic, and jointly owned institutions. | |||
*Trade | |||
The modernization of the Romanian economy during the communist period resulted in a considerable upsurge in its foreign trade and commercial contacts, which involved more than 100 countries. Romania was the first member of Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) to negotiate independently with the European Economic Community (later succeeded by the European Union [EU]), signing a trade agreement in 1980. The country also took part in numerous international fairs and exhibitions. Since the disbanding in 1991 of Comecon, great attention has been paid to broadening trade with less-developed countries as well as with industrialized Western countries. In the decade following the revolution, however, the Romanian government failed to implement many of the macroeconomic reforms that other eastern European countries with transitional economies had undertaken. Nevertheless, in 1993 the United States reinstated most-favoured-nation trading status with Romania, which had been suspended in 1988. | |||
By the beginning of the 21st century, traditional Romanian exports such as textiles and clothing accounted for more than one-fifth of exports, followed by metals, electrical equipment, oil, and nonelectrical machinery. Significant imports included textiles, machinery and electrical equipment, chemical products, oil, and foodstuffs. Total foreign trade has increased since the 1990s, but exports have not kept pace with imports, resulting in a persistent deficit in balance of payments. By the mid-2000s, Romania was actively pursuing membership in the EU, which required that the country adopt measures to establish a free-market economy and curb corruption and smuggling. Romania was admitted to the EU in 2007, but its efforts to join the visa-free Schengen area were frustrated by other EU members’ concerns about possible abuses to the “borderless” system. Romania’s main trading partners are Italy, Germany, Russia, France, and Turkey. | |||
*Services | |||
About one-tenth of Romania’s labour force works in the service industry. Tourism has the potential to become a significant source of income for the country. The unstable economy, ethnic tension, and widespread reports of deprivation and shortages caused a precipitous decline in tourism in the early 1990s. Most visitors were from neighbouring countries such as the Balkan states and Turkey. Efforts to improve accommodations, especially in the large cities, and a generally favourable exchange rate helped to restore tourism, and from the late 1990s to the early 2000s the number of foreign visitors doubled. | |||
Tourist attractions range from winter sports in the mountains to summer seaside activities in the resort belt fringing the Black Sea, with health spas receiving special emphasis, including those that have been built on the salt lakes of Transylvania, most notably in the towns of Ocna Sibiului and Sovata. The historic town of Sighiůoara is a popular tourist draw. The towns of Năvodari, Mamaia, and Eforie were erected after World War II, and the older settlements of Mangalia and Techirghiol have undergone extensive redevelopment. Lakes—among which Lakes Tașaul, Siutghiol, Agigea, Techirghiol, and Mangalia are the most significant—further enhance the attractions of the region. Several of them contain deposits of mud and sulfurous hot springs believed to have therapeutic properties. The Danube delta too has become increasingly popular, because of the growing worldwide interest in ecology and conservation. Special features of interest to tourists include the mountain lakes and underground cave systems of the Carpathians and the fine churches and monasteries, with frescoes dating from the 14th to the 16th century, that are found in northern Moldavia. More generally, the folk costumes and the ancient folklore of Romanians, notably in the Carpathian Mountains, provide a reminder of the country’s long traditions. | |||
*Labour and taxation | |||
Although high unemployment resulted from the collapse of communism, in the 1990s, as the number of people who migrated increased, a labour deficit arose in certain sectors of the economy, such as construction, agriculture, tourism, mechanical processing, and the clothing industry. | |||
Women represent more than two-fifths of Romania’s labour force and generally work in retail, education, and health care. Child labour has been a problem in Romania, especially among Roma girls, with children generally working in agriculture, construction, and domestic service. Various child labour elimination laws were passed at the beginning of the 21st century; however, the problem still exists. | |||
Among the hopeful signs that emerged in the 1990s was the growth of vigorous and independent labour unions as well as chambers of commerce and other nongovernmental organizations. Besides the Central Union of Consumer and Credit Cooperatives, a union of producers and credit institutions dating from the communist era, organizations appropriate to a private economy are emerging. | |||
Romania has a wage tax, a corporate income tax, and a public finance tax. A value-added tax (VAT), a capital tax, and a global income tax also were implemented in the 1990s to attract foreign investment. A flat income tax at the corporate and individual level was introduced in 2004. | |||
*Transportation and telecommunications | |||
Romania is located at a crossroads of European transport. Railways provide the main method of transportation for both freight and passengers in the country. There are good local rail connections with the main lines, including the two that cross the Danube, at Cernavodă (linking Bucharest with the Black Sea port of Constanța) and Giurgiu (connecting Romania with Bulgaria). Since the 1930s, diesel locomotives have been in service, and about one-third of the major lines have been electrified. Most of Romania’s system of national roads has been brought up to modern standards. | |||
The main lines of communication tend to focus on Bucharest and include many scenic routes. The country has maritime connections with many countries, and the port of Constanţa, which has undergone major expansion, plays a large role in the national economy. Finally, the Danube River, supplemented since 1984 by the Danube–Black Sea Canal from Cernavodă to Constanța, is a major transportation route between the Black Sea, the Middle East, and western Europe. The principal ports on the Danube are Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Calafat, Turnu Mǎgurle, Giurgiu, Calarași, Cernavodǎ, Brăila, Galați, Tulcea, and Sulina. Bucharest also is the main centre for air transportation. In addition to local travel, international traffic has grown in significance, and there are international airports in Constanța, Cluj-Napoca, Arad, Timișoara, and Sibiu. The great majority of flights by the Romanian national airline TAROM (derived from Transporturile Aeriene Române) are to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. | |||
Romania’s telecommunications sector was privatized in 2003. Within five years, the fixed-line market expanded substantially, and there was an increase in Internet availability. Romania has significantly more cellular phone subscriptions than people, which marks an exponential increase from 2000, when about one-tenth of Romanians subscribed to a cellular service. | |||
==Government and Society of Romania== | ==Government and Society of Romania== | ||