Last year was full of surprises for Romania. There was the unexpected success of Traian Basescu and his reformist Democratic Alliance in last December’s elections – considered by some as representing the real end of Romania’s communist era. Romania recorded an impressive overall economic performance with real GDP growing by 8.3% and it was the first time in the country’s post-communist history that prices rose by less than 10%. The newly elected government rapidly reduced income and profit taxes from 25% to 16% and last October’s EU report declared Romania a market economy and set it firmly on course for EU accession.
Against this backdrop, 2005 is gearing up to be even more interesting and challenging than 2004. The government will have to balance early economic and political success, with the hard choices required to stay the course for EU accession.
