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Property Fund: Most important challenges for Romania in 2021 are: health crisis, Covid 19 vaccination campaign and fiscal consolidation
The most important challenges for Romania in 2021 are: the health crisis until reaching the best level of immunity, Covid 19 vaccination campaign and fiscal consolidation, Property Fund (PF) report shows.
“Consumption grew gradually while restrictions were lifted. The fact that Romanian economy is based on consumption at a significant level proved a major vulnerability in this period of time. We think that the most important challenges for Romania in 2021 are: he health crisis until reaching the best level of immunity, Covid 19 vaccination campaign and fiscal consolidation. The most important opportunities from our point of view are: recovery funds from EU, which should be received this year, the increase of domestic demand in case of a successful vaccination campaign and the present context of interest rates at low historic values both for public and private investments,” the Property Fund report shows.
PF representatives say it is difficult to foresee how global or Romanian economies will look like in 2021,as there are still many unknown factors at the moment.
Uncertainties about the duration and severity of the economic crisis and the impact on consumption provoked by the pandemic persists. However, the recovery trend became more obvious in semester 2, 2020, especially about prices of natural gas and electricity.
According to the latest data available from Transelectrica, in 2020 electricity consumption dropped by 3.4% against 2019. After a sudden drop of 11.3% in quarter 2, 2020 compared to quarter 2, 2019, most industrial consumers reducing their activity or closing down installations in the initial stage of the emergency state, the gradual relaxation of restrictions contributed to the recovery of electricity demand in quarter 2, 2020. According to Transelectrica, electricity consumption in quarter 4, 2020 was about 1.6% higher than in quarter 4, 2019.
Natural gas consumption grew by 9% in quarter 4, 2020 against quarter 4, 2019, mainly because of the industry converting natural gas into electricity and the fodder industry, which were stimulated by the low natural gas prices, according to OMV Petrom.
In 2020, Property Fund had losses of 103 million lei, from a profit of 3.12 billion lei in 2019, while its own capitals dropped in 2020 to 10.26 billion lei, from 11.87 billion lei in 2019, according to financial results published on Tuesday.
In 2020 PF distributed gross dividends of 418 million lei to shareholders for 2019 financial year.