Romania

E

Currency and Banking

The monetary unit of Romania is the new leu of 100 bani (2.64 lei equalled US$1; early 2007). Since 1991 its value has been allowed to be set by the open market. The National Bank (Banca Nationala a Romaniei; 1880) is the bank of issue and supervises the financial activities of all state enterprises. Romania also has an agricultural bank, an investment bank, and savings and deposit banks.

F

Commerce and Trade

From the mid-1940s through to the 1980s, foreign trade in Romania was a state monopoly. A programme of trade liberalization was instituted among other reforms in 1993 in an attempt to boost the declining economy. Exports were about US$4,200 million per year in the early 1990s; the principal items included fuels, machinery, furniture, textile products, and chemicals. Imports, valued at about US$5,200 million annually, included crude oil and industrial equipment. The Soviet Union and other communist nations were Romania’s leading trade partners, but Romania has also significantly increased its trade with Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Egypt since the early 1970s. In 1992 Romania signed a Black Sea economic cooperation pact to create a Black Sea economic zone together with ten other countries. In the same year, it signed a free trade accord with the European Free Trade Association, and in 1993 it entered into an association agreement with the European Community (now the European Union). In 2004 total exports were valued at US$23,485 million, and imports were US$32,664 million.

G

Labour

In 2005 the Romanian workforce numbered about 10.3 million people. About 22 per cent of them were members of the seven principal workers’ organizations.

H

Transport

Romania has about 10,781 km (6,699 mi) of railway track and about 198,817 km (123,539 mi) of roads, 50 per cent of which are paved. The principal seaports are Constanţa, on the Black Sea, and Galaţi and Brăila, neighbours on the lower Danube; Giurgiu, which has pipeline connections to the Ploieşti oil fields, is an important river port. A canal, opened in 1984, links Constanţa with Cernavodă, a Danube port. The merchant fleet had a total displacement of about 4.8 million deadweight tonnes in the mid-1990s. The state airline TAROM and the independent airline LAR link Bucharest’s airport—Otopeni—with foreign cities. Romania had a ratio of 168 vehicles per 1,000 people in 2001.

I

Communications

Throughout the period of Communist rule, Romania suffered the highest degree of censorship in the world. Every means of communication, including the ownership of a personal typewriter in the home, had to be officially licensed, and permits were often withheld. Today, postal, telegraph, and telephone services in Romania remain State owned. In 2005 there were 203 telephones per 1,000 people. In addition, about 8 million radios and 9 million television sets were in use. The Romanian press is highly regionalized, with newspapers and periodicals appearing in all administrative districts. Many are published in the languages of the various nationalities living in the country. Following the fall of the Ceauşescu regime in 1989, the number of daily newspapers increased from 36 to 145 in 2000.