Sacrifices needed for a five percent economic growth in Romania

National Bank of Romania' s Chief Economist, Valentin Lazea purportedly noted that the country's macroeconomic situation is a good one and this particular stability needs to be maintained. Agerpress informs that he also emphasized the need to keep up the current state of affairs and not resort to “policies aimed at short term success” which can prove detrimental to the current equilibrium. He added “For Romania the potential growth has been calculated to be somewhere at 3% a year. Could we raise this potential to 5% a year? Yes, not through fiscal and monetary policies though, but rather through unpleasant, costly, short term measures that will have long term effects.” Lazea went on to give examples of reforms necessary for raising the growth potential. As such, he started with the economically vital subjects of capital, work and productivity. 
More direct foreign investments was his solution to stimulate capital growth, with a focus on tradables as opposed to real estate, financial services or any other such domains which have been the primary focus of past investments. In terms of work, he stressed the significance of education, noting the paramount importance of raising equality of opportunity, since many children in the country side have no access to education.

Health reform was just as prioritized. Lazea agreed with the government's decision to raise salaries for doctors, although he did highlight performance based compensation as perhaps a better alternative.

As one might expect, since the recent “brain drain” phenomenon has been quite serious in Romania, the National Bank of Romania representative also talked about the need to raise the birthrate and reverse emigration while taking a more selective approach to immigration. To this he added the need to keep those who can and want to still work after retirement socially engaged in this respect.

He ended the list of reforms with a focus on increasing productivity. Among his suggestions were the implication of the private sector in agriculture and the development of transportation infrastructure.

The entire discussion virtually noted the vital areas upon which Romania needs to focus its efforts in order to eventually improve.