It seems that Greece has fallen out of love with Romanian banks. In the past eight months, Greek banks have sold – out of a total of three local operations – two to other foreign buyers and one to a domestic bank. The sale of at least one other Greek operation in Romania is anticipated.
This flight from Bucharest comes as the Romanian economy gains a spring in its step. Romania is today the tiger of the EU, with gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7%, fuelled by borrowing and resulting in what some believe is an unsustainable consumption boom. In the meantime, the country is engaged in a push to converge with other European financial measures and envisages joining the eurozone in no more than four years, a senior official of the National Bank of Romania told The Banker.
