Romania can't decide on its own to adopt the European currency, bankers say

Joi, 30 aprilie 2009, 20:51 English | Business

An one-sided decision to adopt the Euro as national currency is excluded, given the fact that Romania does not fulfill the necessary criteria for true and nominal convergence, said the bankers gathered at the Monetary Policy Colloquia, organized by the Romanian Central Bank, BNR.

"A one-sided decision as such is excluded, since we lack the EU consent and it would bear huge risks", said Laurian Lungu, a manager of Macroanalitica. Lungu added that Romania needs time to adjust its imbalance.

His opinion is shared by Ionut Dumitru, chief economist with Raiffeisen Bank, who insisted on the criteria Romania should fulfill in order to adopt the Euro. At this moment, Romania only obeys the low public debt criterion. The budget deficit, the inflation, the long term interest rate and the exchange rate still need adjusting, Dumitru said.

BNR vice governor Cristian Popa believes that "adopting the Euro faster does not mean that we eliminate the convergence process. It doesn't mean that the macroeconomic imbalance disappears, It would still require adjustment".

According to Popa, Romania's targets remain unchanged: joining the ERM 2 mechanism in 2012, so that Romania would join the Euro zone in 2014.