Romania Remains Top CEE Business Destination In May - Survey

05.20.2011 By Florentina Dragu

Romanian economic outlook for the next six months improved slightly in May, anchoring the country in the first spot among the best business destinations in Central and Eastern Europe, a ZEW/Erste survey showed Friday.

Economic expectations for Romania rose 0.1 points to 50.1 points in May, after an increase of 5.5 points a month earlier, the survey noted.

The assessment of the current economic situation in Romania increased 4 points on the month to minus 18 points, the second gloomiest assessment in the region after Hungary.

In Central and Eastern Europe, economic expectations on a six-month horizon increased by 2.2 points to 20.9 points in May.

"The weaker expectations for the economic development in Poland and Slovakia have mainly burdened the outlook for the CEE region in the current survey," ZEW said.

The CEE region inflation indicator displayed a double digit drop by 23.9 points in May, the first decline this year and the largest decrease among all economies included in the survey.

"The relaxation of inflation concerns is mainly due to a large drop of 22.0 points of the indicator for Poland. Several other CEE economies also display a double digit drop in inflation concerns - Romania, Hungary and Austria," ZEW said.

ZEW-Erste Group Bank's monthly survey includes responses from analysts in Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.