They had previously established comparatively few companies in 2010, the darkest year of the local economy. Without the decline being something major, the lack of investment appetite on the part of foreign companies raises doubts about the local economy. The foreign capital has not established more than 7,000 new companies a year for six years, while in 2006-2008 13,000 to almost 20,000 such new companies started operations.
The representatives of the Foreign Investors Council say the explanation for the statistics might be in the results of a ‘business sentiment index’ that the organization conducts among its members twice a year, which will be published next week.
In the previous index published in March, the FIC members noted that red tape and unpredictable legislation remained key challenges for the business sector in Romania.
This discourages shareholders for whom Romania is no longer the first option. There are more than 200,000 foreign-owned businesses in Romania but only 65,000 of them filed their 2014 financial statements, according to Trade Registry data. Out of those 38,000 posted more than zero revenue. Foreign-held companies posted 536 billion lei (EUR121 billion) revenue last year, an increase of more than 5% on 2013 and almost half of the revenue of all the companies in Romania.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)