Economy (Romania)
=================


     Overview:
         Industry, which accounts for about one-third of the labor force and
         generates over half the GDP, suffers from an aging capital plant and
         persistent shortages of energy. The year 1991 witnessed about a 17% drop in
         industrial production because of energy and input shortages and labor
         unrest. In recent years the agricultural sector has had to contend with
         flooding, mismanagement, shortages of inputs, and disarray caused by the
         dismantling of cooperatives. A shortage of fuel and equipment in 1991
         contributed to a lackluster harvest, a problem compounded by corruption and
         a poor distribution system. The new government is loosening the tight
         central controls of CEAUSESCU'S command economy. It has instituted moderate
         land reforms, with more than one-half of cropland now in private hands, and
         it has liberalized private agricultural output. Also, the new regime is
         permitting the establishment of private enterprises, largely in services,
         handicrafts, and small-scale industry. A law providing for the privatization
         of large state firms has been passed. Most of the large state firms have
         been converted into joint-stock companies, but the selling of shares and
         assets to private owners has been delayed. While the government has halted
         the old policy of diverting food from domestic consumption to hard currency
         export markets, supplies remain scarce in some areas. Furthermore, real
         wages in Romania fell about 20% in 1991, contributing to the unrest which
         forced the resignation of ROMAN in September. The new government continues
         to impose price ceilings on key consumer items.
     GDP:
         purchasing power equivalent - $71.9 billion, per capita $3,100; real growth
         rate - 12% (1991 est.)
     Inflation rate (consumer prices):
         215% (1991 est.)
     Unemployment rate:
         4% (1991 est.)
     Budget:
         revenues $19 billion; expenditures $20 billion, including capital
         expenditures of $2.1 billion (1991 est.)
     Exports:
         $4.0 billion (f.o.b., 1991 est.)
       commodities:
         machinery and equipment 29.3%, fuels, minerals and metals 32.1%,
         manufactured consumer goods 18.1%, agricultural materials and forestry
         products 9.0%, other 11.5% (1989)
       partners:
         USSR 27%, Eastern Europe 23%, EC 15%, US 5%, China 4% (1987)
     Imports:
         $5.4 billion (f.o.b., 1991 est.)
       commodities:
         fuels, minerals, and metals 56.0%, machinery and equipment 25.5%,
         agricultural and forestry products 8.6%, manufactured consumer goods 3.4%,
         other 6.5% (1989)
       partners:
         Communist countries 60%, non-Communist countries 40% (1987)
     External debt:
         $2 billion (1991)
     Industrial production:
         growth rate -17% (1991 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