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. In recent years the agricultural sector has had to contend with drought, mismanagement, and shortages of inputs. Favorable weather in 1989 helped produce a good harvest, although far below government claims. 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-third 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 of 20 or fewer employees in services, handicrafts, and small-scale industry. 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 thorough-going market system.

GNP: $79.8 billion, per capita $3,445; real growth rate - 1.5% (1989 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 0% (1987)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget: revenues $26 billion; expenditures $21.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $13.6 billion (1987)

Exports: $11.5 billion (f.o.b., 1988); 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: $8.75 billion (f.o.b., 1988); 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: none (mid-1989)

Industrial production: growth rate 3.6% (1988)

Electricity: 22,640,000 kW capacity; 80,000 million kWh produced, 3,440 kWh per capita (1989)

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

Aid: donor--$4.3 billion in bilateral aid to non-Communist less developed countries (1956-88)

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

Exchange rates: lei (L) per US$1--20.96 (February 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 1990 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Romania Economy 1990 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Romania Economy 1990 should be addressed to the CIA.