English Version - United Nations Development Programme Romania
English Version - United Nations Development Programme Romania
English Version - United Nations Development Programme Romania
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Fig. 2 .4 The annual average inflation rate in the 1990-1998 period<br />
300<br />
250<br />
200<br />
150<br />
100<br />
50<br />
0<br />
%<br />
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998<br />
12<br />
10<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4<br />
2<br />
0<br />
Source: Natonal Commission for Statistics<br />
The inflation rate<br />
The unemployement rate<br />
As regards the industrial sector, an important pressure factor on the environment, no structural or<br />
significant changes can be noticed. The economic decline in the areas of mining, metallurgy, iron and<br />
steel industry, and chemical industry have slackened the pressure on the environment, but no recovery<br />
measures for the affected areas have been implemented.<br />
The experience gained by the developed countries shows that during the last three decades, an<br />
unabated shift of national economic structures towards environmentally friendly activities has taken<br />
place. Consumption of natural resources and energy, as well as the amount of polluting agents and<br />
waste, have decreased due to the decline in the mining, extractive, and heavy industries. At the same<br />
time, the growth of highly technical and non-polluting industries was encouraged.<br />
In <strong>Romania</strong>, the structural improvement of the economic sectors in line with the requirements of<br />
environment protection is a vital condition for the achievement of sustainable development. The shift<br />
in the proportional importance of the various sectors should be directed towards the growth in value<br />
of the agricultural products, forestry, industry, building and services (trade, transport, mail and<br />
telecommunications, tourism, hotels and restaurants, public administration and defence, health and<br />
social assistance, and other services for the public), by making use of technologic progress and the<br />
improvement of ecological achievements in production and products.<br />
The development of an eco-efficient national industry will encourage the creation of a<br />
competitive domestic market for ecological goods and services and will simultaneously find profitable<br />
opportunities on external markets.<br />
d) In the presence of the following factors: decrease of real GDP, inefficient foreign trade<br />
structure, insufficient financial resources, difficult access to foreign capital markets, constant discrepancy<br />
between the higher consumption as compared to production, the economic development encounters<br />
major structural deficits. The trade balance and current account are in the negative, with a tendency of<br />
growing during the past years; year after year the deficit spending exceeded predictions and the domestic<br />
public debt as well as the foreign debt have accelerated their growth, running the risk of affecting the<br />
future generations' standard of living, see Table 2.3.<br />
Evolution of economic indices 1990-1998<br />
Table 2.3<br />
- Domestic<br />
public debt<br />
- Foreign debt<br />
(mil.$)<br />
- The weight<br />
in GDP of<br />
the budget<br />
excess/deficit<br />
(+/- %)<br />
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998<br />
… 41.1 220.6 1,001.9 3,232.1 6,119.3 11,4.13.6<br />
230,0 1,143.0 2,479.0 3,357.0 4,597.0 5,482.0 7209,0<br />
1,0 -3.2 -4.6 -0.4 -2.4 -2.9 -4.1<br />
14,000.0 31,100.0<br />
8,444,6 8,967.0<br />
-3.9 -4.5<br />
Source: National Commission for Statistics, 1998<br />
Since 1990, the balance of international payments has systematically been deficitary, on the<br />
average about $1.8 billion a year; in 1998, the trade deficit was $3.5 billion. The same negative<br />
16