E&Y: Romania, slightly but significantly advancing to globalization

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Romania ranks 31st overall, climbing up one position in the 2012 Globalization Index according to the Ernst & Young’s annual globalization report, “Looking beyond the obvious: globalization and new opportunities for growth”, released yesterday.  It performed in line with the global average, with outstanding performances in Movement of labor (0.77 points above the average), but lags in Exchange of technology and ideas (-0.51 points lower) and in Movement of capital and finance (-0.25 points lower). It ranks 11th among the 22 Rapid Growth Market countries monitored by the Index.  “Romania has an open economy, which has benefited greatly from the opening up of new markets, especially in the EU. It will benefit from the continued gradual liberalization of world trade and closer trade integration with the EU. Some of the remaining barriers to trade in goods with the EU are likely to be removed, and liberalization of trade in services, which could eventually benefit Romania, is set to continue, albeit at a slower rate than previously planned”, according to one of the world’s leading professional services firms.  “ (…) The challenge for business is how to monitor, evaluate and respond as rapidly and effectively as they can, to a dynamic environment that cannot be dealt with by an off the shelf solution. In this context, Romania can only push forward in the competition for investments, by continually improving the economy competitiveness”, states Bogdan Ion, Country Managing Partner, Ernst & Young Romania. Despite weak growth in 2012 and an uncertain economic outlook in many markets for 2013, globalization is still increasing among a majority of the world’s 60 leading economies. While most forecasters believe global GDP will be in the range of 3%-3.5% in 2013 with a modest increase in subsequent years, the Index suggests that globalization will continue to advance driven primarily by technology and the cross-border flow of ideas. It also highlights the improved globalization scores in the last 12 months for medium sized rapid growth markets like Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines as well as smaller European countries including Belgium, Slovakia and Hungary.