Businessman Ion Ţiriac, probably the wealthiest Romanian, isquite reserved with regard to the firm statement that the Romanianeconomy will exit the crisis at the end of the first quarter. Hebelieves 2011 will be just like 2010 and we'll leave the crisisbehind in 2012.
"Banks have a lot of money at present, even in Romania there ismoney in banks, but they are equally cautious or hyper-cautious, sothat they no longer know where, how, what and to whom to lendmoney. On the other hand, relationships among banks are almostfrozen because everyone is protecting their lifeline," said Ţiriacduring the "After 20 Years" show on ProTV.
For 28 months Romania has been struggling to overcome recession,despite some huge loans from the IMF and other internationalfinancial institutions that helped the state survive and theexchange rate remain stable.
Premier Boc and the entire ruling party, PDL, several weeks agoannounced Romania would exit the crisis at the end of this year'sfirst quarter. However, the business sector is reluctant to agreeto the statement.
"We haven't detected any signs of economic rebound, the situationis unchanged from the end of 2010, but at least no deteriorationcan be seen," said Guy Poupet, chairman of BRD-SocGen, the secondbiggest bank on the market.
Though it has saved 5bn euros in recent years, consumers are afraidof resuming spending, of buying cars, houses or clothes again.While the industry and exports are obviously growing, consumerspending, lending, construction and investments are contracting, inthe end preventing the economy from picking up.
"The only good news is that we have so much catching up to do, thatat the moment Europe regains some health, emerging countries likeus, but especially us, will be having a much bigger slice of thepie to eat than the others," Ţiriac believes.
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