CFA: Main consequence of this war on Romanian economy: economic growth anticipation halves

The majority of financial analysts of international financial institutions have rather halved their rate of national economy increase this year, as a main consequence of this war on the Romanian economy, said Adrian Codirlasu, deputy chairman of CFA Romania."The impact of the Ukrainian crisis comes from two places: on the one hand, from the price increase of energy products, as well as food, which reduces demand, and on the other hand, the strong aversion to risk generated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which also leads to a more cautious consumer behavior, as well as of the companies. From here, a tempering of the consumption and investments, and all this lead to a reduction of internal demand, and implicitly to slowing down the GDP's growth rate. We see that most financial analysts from international financial institutions have halved the national economy's growth rate this year. If before the war we could talk about over 4% or somewhere between 4% - 5%, now we are already speaking of numbers around 2%, even under 2%. Basically, the economic growth rate has halved. This is the main consequence of the war on the Romanian economy," Adrian Codirlasu explained, during a conference about Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), organized by Oxygen Events.He highlighted that the PNRR, on the energy component, emphasizes on going towards a more sustainable or green economy through investments in hydrogen, by purchasing batteries that work in parallel with photo-voltaic or wind plants, so that a constant stream can be ensured, by improving Romania's energy infrastructure."They had something to do with sustainability and lower carbon consumption. Basically, what is happening in Russia - and we are already seeing this at an European level that there was a decision of giving up energy products from Russia, the decision was made, and the PNRR comes to support this decision, - investments are going towards green energy, which is developed locally. I believe that sanctions should be enforced. Why? Because any barrel of oil or gas imported by the European Union basically supports Russia's war against Ukraine. We need to stop these gas and oil imports from Russia in order to stop the financing given by the European Union to Russia in order to support this war," the deputy chairman of CFA Romania also said.He highlighted that carbon emission targets were established."Precisely because of the fact that we still need fossil fuel, it looks that for a while the enforcement of these targets will not be so strict anymore, but, on the long-term, these targets remain. I believe that in the long term these targets should remain the same and that this crisis should be seen as an opportunity of making the conversion to green energy as quickly as possible," Adrian Codirlasu specified.