Investor woes regarding the safety of investments and products made in China may lead to a relocation of production facilities to Europe and Romania should spare no administrative efforts to be an attractive market for greenfield investments, it said.
In the new international context, as the US and EU are rethinking their macroeconomic strategies, Romanian companies have the opportunity to win major contracts as the country’s export product range has grown significantly over the past years.
“Romania’s exports stood at EUR69 billion in 2019, the best results in history, in line with our estimates. 2020 started out well but the lockdown period and the coming months EUR60 billion this year and we expect a comeback towards EUR70 billion in 2021,” said Cosmin Bucur, general manager of Moneycorp Romania.
For comparison, in 2010 Romania’s exports amounted to EUR37.3 billion, half of the value reported in 2019. Romania directed 76.6% of its exports to EU countries last year.
The evolution of Romanian exports will depend on the economic recovery of its main trading partners in the EU, namely Germany, Italy and France, Bucur added.
Romania’s main exports in 2019 were machinery and electrical devices (29.1% of the total), transport vehicles (18.4%), furniture and construction material (12.5%), food products (10.4%), chemicals and plastics (9.2%), metallurgical products (8.6%), apparel and footwear (7.8%) and mineral products (4%).
The biggest part of Romania’s exports of product and services went to Germany (EUR15.4 billion – 29.3% of the total), Italy (EUR7.7 billion – 14.7%), and France (EUR4.7 billion – 9%), followed by Hungary (EUR3.3 billion – 6.3%), UK (EUR2.5 billion – 4.9%), Poland (EUR2.4 billion – 4.6%), Bulgaria(EUR2.4 billion – 4.6%) and Czech Republic (EUR2.1 billion – 4.1%).
Other destinations for Romanian exports by value were Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Slovakia, Belgium, Greece and Sweden.
Outside the EU, Romania’s exports went mainly to Turkey (EUR2.2 billion), USA (EUR1.3 billion), Republic of Moldova (EUR1.2 billion) and Russia (EUR1 billion).
The analysis underlines the further evolution of Romanian exports will depend to a great extent on how the government will support economic recovery. Experts said government programs for SMEs and large companies should be accompanies by tax incentives to stimulate greenfield investments.