Still, no one dares feel enthusiastic and the representatives of the industry that started the international crisis are reservedly optimistic while waiting to see the impact Fed’s decision to curtail the financial stimulus gradually will have on the region.
A conclusion of the Central and Eastern European Forum that Euromoney organized in Vienna, which gives an insight into the banking industry’s state of mind at the beginning of the year, is that investors have begun to differentiate the countries in the region by individual performance instead of treating them as a group.
Romania should be a direct beneficiary of this change of attitude, and some even say it qualifies for the “new Poland” title based on good macroeconomic position and the solid economic growth of about 3% last year. Some investors, however, are wary of the political instability risk in a year of European Parliament and presidential elections, even though the success of the 30-year bond issue on Tuesday does not show it directly.
On the other hand, Romania looks better than its neighbors Hungary and Ukraine in bankers’ eyes.
However, when it comes to naming the sources of a very good 2014 for Romania, bankers shrug as long as huge non-performing loans and unsolved insolvencies remained an issue.
Romania’s central bank, BNR, is flooding the market with cash, but bankers say this is not where the problem with the system is.
Romania was unusually well represented at the forum in Vienna, with speakers including Budget Minister Liviu Voinea, central bank deputy governor Cristian Popa, Enache Jiru, state secretary with the Finance Ministry in charge of debt management, and Stefan Nanu, general manager of the Treasury.
Also attending was Dragos Andrei, business environment advisor to Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who gave investors interested in Romania’s capital market hope by telling them about the new ‘task force’ recently set up and consisting of professionals from various fields to tackle specific issues and help Romania reach the emerging market status.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)