Overview: Industry, which accounts for one-third of the labor force and generates over half the GNP, suffers from an aging capital plant and persistent shortages of energy. The year 1990 witnessed about a 20% drop in industrial production because of energy and input shortages and labor unrest. In recent years the agricultural sector has had to contend with drought, mismanagement, and shortages of inputs. A drought in 1990 contributed to a lackluster harvest, a problem compounded by corruption and a poor distribution system. The new government is slowly loosening the tight central controls of Ceausescu's command economy. It has instituted moderate land reforms, with close to one-half of cropland now in private hands, and it has allowed changes in prices for private agricultural output. Also, the new regime is permitting the establishment of private enterprises, largely in services, handicrafts, and small-scale industry. New laws providing for the privatization of large state firms have been passed. However, most of the early privatization will involve converting state firms into joint-stock companies. The selling of shares to the public has not yet been worked out. Furthermore, the government has halted the old policy of diverting food from domestic consumption to hard currency export markets. So far, the government does not seem willing to adopt a thoroughgoing market system, that is, there is great caution in decontrolling prices because of public opposition. The government has sharply raised price ceilings instead of lifting them entirely.

GNP: $69.9 billion, per capita $3,000; real growth rate - 10.8% (1990 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 50% (1990 est.)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget: revenues $28.4 billion; expenditures $28.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $12.3 billion (1989)

Exports: $9.2 billion (f.o.b., 1990 est.); commodities--machinery and equipment 34.7%, fuels, minerals and metals 24.7%, manufactured consumer goods 16.9%, agricultural materials and forestry products 11.9%, other 11.6% (1986); partners--USSR 27%, Eastern Europe 23%, EC 15%, US 5%, China 4% (1987)

Imports: $10.9 billion (f.o.b., 1990 est.); commodities--fuels, minerals, and metals 51.0%, machinery and equipment 26.7%, agricultural and forestry products 11.0%, manufactured consumer goods 4.2% (1986); partners--Communist countries 60%, non-Communist countries 40% (1987)

External debt: $400 million (mid-1990)

Industrial production: growth rate - 20% (1990 est.)

Electricity: 22,700,000 kW capacity; 64,200 million kWh produced, 2,760 kWh per capita (1990)

Industries: mining, timber, construction materials, metallurgy, chemicals, machine building, food processing, petroleum

Agriculture: accounts for 15% of GNP and 28% of labor force; major wheat and corn producer; other products--sugar beets, sunflower seed, potatoes, milk, eggs, meat, grapes

Economic aid: donor--$4.4 billion in bilateral aid to non-Communist less developed countries (1956-89)

Currency: leu (plural--lei); 1 leu (L) = 100 bani

Exchange rates: lei (L) per US$1--60.00 (June 1991), 22.432 (1990), 14.922 (1989), 14.277 (1988), 14.557 (1987), 16.153 (1986), 17.141 (1985)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Romania on this page is re-published from the 1991 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Romania Economy 1991 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Romania Economy 1991 should be addressed to the CIA.