EBRD approves new Country Strategy for Romania

• Focus on private-sector competitiveness, economic resilience, green transition
• Aim is to help sustain Romania’s EU convergence path, address structural challenges
• EBRD investment in Romania to date stands at over €12 billion

The EBRD’s Board of Directors has approved a new Country Strategy for Romania which will guide the Bank’s investment and policy engagement in the country during the next five years. It will focus on private-sector competitiveness, economic resilience and the green economy transition.

The Bank is a major investor in Romania and combines investments with support for reforms that help improve the business environment in the country and mobilise investment from other sources. To date, the EBRD has invested more than €12 billion in the Romanian economy.

Since joining the European Union in 2007, Romania has rapidly closed its historical income gap with regional peers, with real output per capita and labour productivity reaching close to 80 per cent of the EU average. Despite a broader economic slowdown in Europe following the Covid-19 pandemic and war on Ukraine, Romania’s economy has proved resilient and contracted less than the EU average.

The new EBRD strategy aims to help sustain Romania’s convergence path while addressing its remaining structural vulnerabilities.

Between 2025 and 2030, the EBRD will focus on enhancing private-sector competitiveness in Romania through innovation, access to finance and good governance and on supporting the country’s economic resilience and green economy transition.

Victoria Zinchuk, EBRD Regional Director for Romania, said: “Our new country strategy is an active response to Romania's most pressing economic issues. It provides a framework for targeted investments and policy engagement that can help the country overcome its immediate fiscal crisis and build a more sustainable and prosperous future”.