Oil prices have doubled since the beginning of the year, in somedays even going beyond the 70-dollar threshold, while the Romanianeconomy has seen its decline deepen in the second quarter to 8.8%against the same time last year, from 6.2% in the first threemonths. How threatening are the rising prices of the "black gold"for a falling economy?
Petrom, the biggest company on the market, which stated thefollowing months would be more difficult compared with the firsteight months of the year amid the rising unemployment and shrinkingpurchasing power, believes that if the oil barrel reaches 100dollars, this will dent the sales of all companies on thesegment.
"Romania is caught between the rising oil prices and theworsening economic performances. A 100-dollar price per oil barrelamid the current economic environment of Romania is set to generateproblems in terms of sales for all of us. This is why we believethe end of the year will be a difficult one and we're seeing therising oil prices as a possible threat," says Tamas Mayer, Petrommanager in charge of marketing.
According to some previous statements he made, fuel consumershave become extremely sensitive about prices at the pump, a reasonwhy price hikes are not as easily digested as in the years whenthey were accompanied by rising wages.
"Oil prices are positively influencing net producers and have anegative impact on net consumers. Since Romania is an oil importer,the rising prices will have an impact over the economy. Still,Romania has bigger oil reserves than many countries in the regionand therefore this negative effect is much smaller compared withother countries", explains Janos Hindi, senior economist withHungary's MOL oil group, present domestically through MOL Romaniasubsidiary.
There are several factors that have prompted the oil priceincrease in recent months, but China's economic progression isprobably the most important one.
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