THE ASSOCIATION OF FUND MANAGERS: "Romania could become an emerging market in 12-18 months"

Romania could become an emerging market within at most a year or a year and a half, according to a statement by the representatives of the Association of Fund Managers (AAF). Last year, this industry had the highest growth rate since the beginning of the economic crisis. The presented report quotes the International Financial Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, which thinks that an emerging market is "the market that increases in size and degree of sophistication, in comparison with a market that is relatively small, inactive and which shows little signs of change". According to the document, achieving the status of emerging market could happen earlier than 2016, because of the fact that Romania has "a budget deficit below the standard of the European Union, of 3% (...), has one of the lowest rates of indebtedness in the EU - approximately 40%" and, in May, Standard&Poor's has improved its sovereign rating.

"We think that Romania will maintain its rate of growth at around 3%, between 2014 and 2017", S&P analysts say.

Dragoş Neacşu, the president of the Association of Fund Managers (AAF), which has 28 members, with total assets of 5.5 billion Euros, said that Romania's economy needs "public policies with immediate effects". "Now is the time to act", was the message of the president of the AAF addressed to the representatives of the business sector and the political decision makers who attended the round table organized by the Association.

"Together with private pensions, we represent over 10% of Romania's public debt. It's not coincidence that the weight of the institutional investors in the capitalization of the stock market in Romania is somewhere around the same significant level, of 10%, with a clear trend for growth in the coming years. We are going to be one of the pillars of sustainable funding, in the medium and long term, for the real economy and the public policies engaged through allocations from the state budget", the president of the AAF further said. The assets managed by the members of the AAF and the private pension funds exceed 9.2 billion Euros, to which the assets of more than 3 billion Euros managed by the Proprietatea Fund should be added. The combined value of these investments amounts to 10% of Romania's GDP.

The AAF is the local partner of EFAMA (European Fund and Asset Management Association), the entity which represents the investment and asset management funds in Europe, with which 27 national associations, 62 corporations and 25 associated members are affiliated.