Transport Infrastructure In Romania And Bulgaria
1. Growth of the GDP:
The annual growth of the Bulgarians’ GDP was around +2.1% in 2006 (Source: Eurostat) and the Romanian’s GDP’s growth is +4.1% (Source: Eurostat). The trend is an increase of the GDPs’ growth in this country since 2000 until 2006.
After a devastating crisis in 1997, Bulgarians’ governments did a lot of reforms (trade liberalization, social reform, divestiture of state-owned companies,…) in order to improve the productivity, the foreign and local investors confidence.
Moreover, the minimum wage increased this year from 65 to 90 € in Bulgaria. In Romania, the minimum wage is around 110 €. So, the employees costs increased, but these wages are the lower of the EU. We can differentiate 3 group in Europe for the minimal wage : Bulgaria and Romania are in the lower group, which included Latvia(172 €), Lithuania (173€), Slovakia (217€), Estonia(230€), Hungary(257€), Poland (245€) and Czech Republik (288€) (Source: Eurostat).
So, from a labour costs approach, it’s a good opportunity for our company to invest now in Bulgaria and Romania, because they are just starting their development.
2. Inflation
The average inflation rate for the whole EU is 2% in 2006. ( Source: Eurostat). Exclude 4 countries, all the new member states have an inflation rate above 2%. Among these countries, we found Romania (+0.5%) and Bulgaria (+0.4%) who are of last rank. So we can say that it’s better to invest now, and we will have few years before the development of a high inflation in Romania and Bulgaria on account of the European integration.
3. FDI inflows
The amount of the net FDI inflow in Bulgaria is 2 600 billion $ (US), whereas in Romania this amount grows up until 6 600 billion $ (US) (Source: Worldbank).
Even if there is a gap between the FDI levels in these 2 countries, they have approximately the same trade...
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