On the medium and long term, the association expects the industry will grow at a faster pace.
“For this year we estimate in Romania a growth of 0% to 5% for the business services sector, under an optimistic scenario. Most services are expected to stagnate on the short term (e.g. financial and accounting services, HR services and certain back-office services),” said Catalin Iorgulescu, vice-president at ABSL.
In the short run, he added it was possible for customer services for tourism and transport to see sharp growth due to reservation cancellations, followed by a potentially significant decline on the medium term. However, the decline could be compensated by an increase in customer and logistical services for online commerce.
IT services may register growth, as automation and artificial intelligence solutions could accelerate amid the current pandemic context, he said.
Given the current context, the number of employees in the business services industry could grow by as much as 5% this year.
The most recent study of the industry in the EMEA region shows the sector may register slight growth this year, of 1%-5%, with medium-term growth expected at 10%-15%.
According to the report, Poland is the most developed business services market in the region, with 1,400 companies and 330,000 employees in the industry.
In terms of revenues generated by the industry, Romania is the second largest market in Europe. The business services in Romania industry generated revenue of EUR4.5 billion in 2019, or around 2% of the country’s gross domestic product.
The sector includes 280 companies and over 131,000 employees, namely approximately 2.4% of all employees in the Romanian economy. These companies’ clients come mainly from Europe (79%) and 14% from the United States.