World Bank officials expect Romania"s potential economic growth rate to remain around 2% over the next two years, down from the 4% forecasts made in the previous years.
"The steep drop in Romania"s economic growth potential caused us to change our estimates to just 2%, but this value could fluctuate once investments resume", said Kaspar Richter, senior economist of the World Bank, who emphasized that this percentage was calculated without taking into account any eventual imbalances.
Mr. Kaspar considers that an increase in the optimum growth rate is subject to a rise in productivity.
"A positive aspect of the crisis in the ECE region is the fact that the labor markets have grown, even though at a slower pace than expected, and I believe in the coming period growth rates will be lower than they were prior to the crisis", the official of the World Bank said. These past few years, Romania"s experienced accelerated consumption-based growth.