Adrian Vasilescu (NBR): If Spain and Italy were to go into a tailspin, this wouldn"t be that good for us, either

Spain and Italy going into a tailspin would affect Romania and steps need to be taken to mitigate the effects of such an event, Adrian Vasilescu, advisor to the governor of the Romanian Central Bank said yesterday, hinting at the potential problems that the two countries could face. "Italy and Spain are two very large countries, and if they were to go into a tailspin it wouldn"t be too good for us either. I hope they don"t. If they do, we will have to take steps to make sure we won"t be affected. From my point of view, it would be however impossible to completely avoid the effects of such an event", Vasilescu explained, emphasizing that Romania has various types of relationships with the two countries.

"The shakeup in Europe, if Spain and Italy were to fall, would be huge and there is a risk something like that could happen, because of the size of Italy"s debt. Let"s hope it can be avoided", the NBR official said, quoted by Agerpres.

Long term interest rates for Spain and Italy have reached record highs since the creation of the Eurozone, due to massive bond sales, as investors are moving to safer assets, in particular those of countries ranked 3A by ratings agencies.

As for the evolution of the Euro/RON exchange rate on Tuesday, on the Romanian interbank market, when the leu lost over 1%, in about two hours, Adrian Vasilescu said that that state of things could change quickly.

"I"m paying it no mind at all. A seller or buyer could come along and change the status of the day", he said.