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38 I Southeast Europe bne December 2018
Overheating risks are building in the Romanian economy, says Capital Economics.
Capital Economics warns of growing overheating risk in Romania
bne IntelliNews
Overheating risks are building in the Romanian economy, Capital Economics analysts warned
on November 6 after the Romanian central bank decided to keep its policy rate at 2.5%.
The National Bank of Romania (BNR) was widely expected to maintain the policy rate at the November 6 meeting. However, Capital analysts said the decision, “adds to our concerns that overheating risks are being overlooked”.
They cited fast-rising wages, and the widening of the current account deficit to a five-year high – and one of the highest levels in any emerging market – of 4.0% of GDP. “We think that further interest rate hikes are needed to cool the economy,” Capital analysts stressed in the November 6 note.
They also warned about inflation, which inflation which peaked at a five-year high of 5.4% in June, though had slowed somewhat to 5.0% by September, still
Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece plan joint bid to host 2030 World Cup
Carmen Simion in Bucharest
Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece are considering submitting a joint bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
No Balkan country has hosted a World Cup so far and in the wider Eastern Europe region, only Russia has been a host country for the world’s most viewed sporting event, though Poland and Ukraine jointly hosted the Euro 2012 football championship.
The idea of hosting the football World Cup was raised by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and was agreed with the Romanian and Bulgarian premiers, Viorica Dancila and Boyko Borissov, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told journalists, N1 reported on November 2.
Several other multi-country bids are expected. So far, a joint bid from Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay has been confirmed. Also, the football associations of England, Scot- land, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland are considering putting forward a proposal to host the 2030 World Cup, according to the BBC. Another bid could be filed jointly
by Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
Should the Balkan 4’s bid be successful, the event would be beneficial to the economies of the countries, forcing them to improve their infrastructure and bringing a large number of tourists to the Balkans.
Existing stadiums and transport infrastructure in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia lags behind those of other European countries. Romania, Greece and Bulgaria are EU member states, while Serbia, a candidate country, hopes to join the block by 2025.
“We are grateful to these countries for the support they have shown for Serbia on its path to the European Union. I told them that dialogues need to be continued with the conviction that we will manage to avoid incidents and maintain the stability which we all need,” Vucic said.
The bill for hosting the event would inevitably be substantial. It cost Russia around $15bn to host the 2018 World Cup, the most expensive football tournament in history. This would be problematic for the three former socialist countries, which lack the modern infrastructure needed to host such an event.
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