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WB's Muller: Nothing wrong to have economic growth based on consumption, if proper ingredients found
There is nothing wrong in having economic growth based on consumption, but Romania should find a way to grow on different ingredients, said the World Bank's Vice President Cyril Muller in an interview with AGERPRES, released on Sunday.
It is also important for Romania to have investments, the ability to innovate, to export, fields that would contribute to economic growth, he added.
On the other hand, said the WB's official, we must understand that this growth based on consumption in the current situation and considering the previous years is important for the country, as it improves the living standard of the population.
Romania has progressed a lot in the past 25 years, but it has to further efforts, in particular as regards the infrastructure, the education and the social inclusion in order to reach the category of the high-income countries, said the World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia, Cyril Muller.
In the interview, Cyril Muller talked about the importance of the equality of chances in education, the well-oriented social care and also about the access of all people to justice, no matter the region they live in.
According to Muller, Romania has to continue the infrastructure's development, because Romania is a beautiful country with an interesting geography therefore it has to make sure that the economic activities are well distributed territorially and for this reason it has to have a good infrastructure to connect the regions.
Education is another important step Romania should take to develop further. According to him, Romania is within the European Union among the last three countries in respect of education, and when saying that he referred to the possibility to establishing connections between the skills gained through education and what the labour market or the economy in general ask for. The #1 advantage of Romania is its human resource, he added.
Inclusion stays among the main challenges for the future growth of Romania's economy. Romania still has things to do to better protect its citizens, in particular the vulnerable groups. And here it is about orienting the social assistance to those who need it the most, said Cyril Muller.
Another element addressed by the WB official in the intreview is the strengthening of the state institutions. Romania has to continue to improve the governmental services, the transparency, the expenses structure, the situation of the state-run companies, the justice, etc.
All in all, said Muller, Romania has done well on two fronts: it obtained a solid, necessary fiscal consolidation, and it took steps to improve economy's structure. If I follow the today's data, I'd say that Romania is capable to have robust macroeconomic, fiscal and monetary policies, and that it's also capable to accept difficult challenges and head its economy to a better future.
Yes, a series of legislative initiatives are tackled in this election period, but there will be interesting to see how they are going to be implemented in the future. Fact is that Romania needs to continue on a good macroeconomic management's path, because if this doesn't happen it will be very difficult to increase and improve the living standard of its citizens. Such decisions endorsed in election period, some implemented already, some not, (...) important is the direction, he stressed.