English Version - United Nations Development Programme Romania

Fig. 2 .4 The annual average inflation rate in the 1990-1998 period
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
%
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Source: Natonal Commission for Statistics
The inflation rate
The unemployement rate
As regards the industrial sector, an important pressure factor on the environment, no structural or
significant changes can be noticed. The economic decline in the areas of mining, metallurgy, iron and
steel industry, and chemical industry have slackened the pressure on the environment, but no recovery
measures for the affected areas have been implemented.
The experience gained by the developed countries shows that during the last three decades, an
unabated shift of national economic structures towards environmentally friendly activities has taken
place. Consumption of natural resources and energy, as well as the amount of polluting agents and
waste, have decreased due to the decline in the mining, extractive, and heavy industries. At the same
time, the growth of highly technical and non-polluting industries was encouraged.
In Romania, the structural improvement of the economic sectors in line with the requirements of
environment protection is a vital condition for the achievement of sustainable development. The shift
in the proportional importance of the various sectors should be directed towards the growth in value
of the agricultural products, forestry, industry, building and services (trade, transport, mail and
telecommunications, tourism, hotels and restaurants, public administration and defence, health and
social assistance, and other services for the public), by making use of technologic progress and the
improvement of ecological achievements in production and products.
The development of an eco-efficient national industry will encourage the creation of a
competitive domestic market for ecological goods and services and will simultaneously find profitable
opportunities on external markets.
d) In the presence of the following factors: decrease of real GDP, inefficient foreign trade
structure, insufficient financial resources, difficult access to foreign capital markets, constant discrepancy
between the higher consumption as compared to production, the economic development encounters
major structural deficits. The trade balance and current account are in the negative, with a tendency of
growing during the past years; year after year the deficit spending exceeded predictions and the domestic
public debt as well as the foreign debt have accelerated their growth, running the risk of affecting the
future generations' standard of living, see Table 2.3.
Evolution of economic indices 1990-1998
Table 2.3
- Domestic
public debt
- Foreign debt
(mil.$)
- The weight
in GDP of
the budget
excess/deficit
(+/- %)
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998
… 41.1 220.6 1,001.9 3,232.1 6,119.3 11,4.13.6
230,0 1,143.0 2,479.0 3,357.0 4,597.0 5,482.0 7209,0
1,0 -3.2 -4.6 -0.4 -2.4 -2.9 -4.1
14,000.0 31,100.0
8,444,6 8,967.0
-3.9 -4.5
Source: National Commission for Statistics, 1998
Since 1990, the balance of international payments has systematically been deficitary, on the
average about $1.8 billion a year; in 1998, the trade deficit was $3.5 billion. The same negative
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