The effects of the global economic crunch will only be felt by mid 2009 in Romania, one newspaper reads on Monday, quoting Finance ministry experts. Elsewhere in the news, Romanians abroad would rather live on unemployment rates abroad than return home.

Finance ministry experts declare that the effects of the economic crunch will only be felt in Romania by mid 2009, Cotidianul informs. However, its effects will not be as harsh as those witnessed by other European countries.

Romania's economy, according to quoted experts, reacts with a 6 to 7 months delay to what is happening within the European Union. Thus, they declared that currently, Romania is doing just well due to the contracts signed before the crisis broke out.

Nonetheless, for Romania, the crisis will not be that harsh, since its extra-communitarian commercial relations increased by 27% in the last year, and they will act as a protective cushion. Moreover, Romania's weird consumption structure, which amounts to some 65% for food and other goods, will be another antidote to easily escape the crisis, National Prognosis Committee president Ion Ghizdeanu declared.

Romania's relations with the European Union are very tight, since some 70% of the country's trade balance is taken up by it which might be the ticket to an important crisis effect. Ministry experts declared that after 8 or 9 years of constant economic growth Romania will face an important challenge and the fiscal economy will play an important role.

Ghizdeanu showed that the first effects of the crisis were visible in Romania as well, especially in the production sector. He pointed out that in the last couple of months, local automobile productions had serious problems and so did those in the wood and electronic appliances industries.

However, foreign direct investments will continue to cover an important sector on the market. In 2008 alone some 2.5 billion euro were reinvested and for 2009, the ministry expects to have at least 2 billion euro in foreign direct investments coming as re-investments. Ghizdeanu declared that unemployment rates will not skyrocket, but it will most probably grow from 6.3% to 6.5%.

Contrary to this, Labor ministry Mariana Campeanu declared that some 17,000 Romanians could be made redundant by the end of the year due to the crisis.

In the same vein, Evenimentul Zilei reads about Romanians abroad who might consider coming back home while others would rather be unemployed abroad that in Romania. The economic crunch that hit Europe in the last months also affected Romanian immigrants working the construction sector in Spain or Italy.

Dozens of people were fired and had to sell their houses or give them up while others who are still employed consider the worse case scenarios. Romanians in Madrid refuse to return home, because unemployment rates are higher abroad than back home. Moreover, in Spain, Romanians who have social insurances can take professional re-qualification classes and find other jobs.

Romania's Ambassador to Spain, Maria Ligor declared that, officially, there are over 750,000 registered Romanians in the country. However, estimates show that there are some 100,000 unemployed while only 25,000 have legal paperworks.

However, Romanians in Italy would rather return home: some 40% of the 65,000 Romanians in Turin declared that they plan to return home for good. The main reasons are low salaries and high prices.