“[The increase] doesn’t help us to catch up with the other EU countries or to adopt the euro in 2019, as countries like Romania require a faster growth; however, it’s a good step forward,” Olteanu told the TMA Europe East European conference in Bucharest.
He said Romania, alongside Poland, benefited from increased capital inflows following the tensions in Ukraine.
“We are on the good side of the region, a side that has benefited from the tragedy in Ukraine,” Olteanu said.
The central bank’s official said lending activity is also showing signs of recovery, while trading on the local stock market has been picking up.
“There are signs of a small increase in lending, following many years of stagnation. Also, the stock market is coming to life and we hope corporate financing can diversify,” Olteanu said.
Around 90% of financing in Romania is secured by bank loans, which is “neither normal nor balanced,” he added.
Romania’s economy grew at the fastest pace in the European Union in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the year-ago period, official data showed Thursday.
The country’s gross domestic product expanded at an annualized rate of 3.8% in January through March, well above the EU average growth of 1.4%. Poland posted the second-biggest increase, of 3.5% year-on-year, followed by Hungary with a 3.2% growth and the UK with 3.1%.
Against the last quarter of 2013, Romania’s GDP inched up 0.1% in seasonally adjusted data in the January-March period.