As regards the processing industry, retail and services, the number of employees will remain constant, which means that the rate of unemployment should not grow. However, managers say that prices will grow in the coming period, especially in retail, while in the processing industry prices will grow at a slower pace.

This price rise could be partially explained by the devaluation of the Romanian national currency, the leu, against the Euro, a phenomenon that has been fueled lately by the situation of the Cypriote banks that have branches in Romania. Clients of some small banks, among which Cypriote and Greek banks, have transferred their deposits to bigger banking institutions, which they believe are safer. The Governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isarescu, has stated that the Romanian banking system is strong enough to deal with shocks. He believes Romania will not be faced with a bank crisis like the one in Cyprus, all the more so as there are big differences between the fiscal situations of the two countries and between their banking systems.

Mugur Isarescu: “Not only are there no resemblances, but differences are huge, especially with regard to the fiscal situation. Romania has escaped excessive deficit, Cyprus has not. Romania’s public debt is under 40% of the GDP, Cyprus’s is 80%, with a tendency of growing towards 100%. There is no fiscal paradise in Romania, quite the opposite. Taxes and contributions are added to say the 1,000 Romanian lei an entrepreneur has to pay. Banks in Romania are well capitalized, they all have solvency rates and the deposit guarantee system works. We do not have to worry about those with liquidities, because they are not so many in Romania and I can assure you they can take care of their money.”

In another words, the crisis of the Cypriote banks, which account for only 1.3% of the entire banking system in Romania, cannot dramatically change the optimistic forecasts produced by statistics experts regarding Romania’s economic development in the coming three months.