PMR Research is a specialised custom market research unit of PMR Ltd., a British-American company based in Romania. We offer a wide range of research services in Central and Eastern Europe for companies interested in business over the countries in the region.

Research services provided by PMR Research in Romania include:

• brand and company image studies
• research on customer preferences, their satisfaction and their purchasing habits
• product concept tests
• usage & attitude studies
• internet surveys
• quantitative surveys - telephone, CATI, face-to-face
• qualitative research - focus groups, IDIs
• industry analyses (comprehensive analyses of given market sectors performed using PMR's proprietary methodology PMR MarketInsight)
• preparation of databases
• fieldwork services

Why to invest?

Member of the EU Long time industrial tradition Stable economy Stable political system Wide educational system Second biggest country of the EU members in the CEE Diversified industry Second lowest average salary in the EU Attractive tax system Access to a 22mn people domestic market with high consumption level A pool of skilled labour force Reduced social insurance contributions from 2007 Access to EU funds Well developed base of suppliers Infrastructure development

Business and economical environment

A member of the EU since 2007, Romania has travelled a long road from the Communist, centrally-planned economy to the free market that it enjoys currently. As the second biggest EU member in the CEE in terms of population –22 million inhabitants - it offers an array of possibilities in such sectors as metal processing, business process outsourcing, food manufacturing, chemical industry, wood industry, automotive, construction, mechanical industry and renewable energy. The political system is stable and legal regulations comply with those across the EU. Recently, taxes have been simplified and reduced to a universal flat rate of 16% for both the corporate and the personal income tax. In 2007, social insurance contribution rates were decreased. Romania offers a variety of incentives for potential investors, including access to EU structural funds, a variety of special economic zones, business parks, greenfield and brownfield locations, as well as property tax exemptions. One of the threats to investors is Romania’s exclusion from the Euro zone, which creates an additional currency risk. This risk is even stronger as the government runs the country with a high deficit exceeding the 10% threshold. Additionally, with a developed industry, Romania also offers access to a wide base of local suppliers offering quality components for further usage in other products.


The Romanian economy has been growing in the period 2001 – 2008 by 6.21% annually on average. The highest growth rates has been recorded in 2004 (8.47%) and 2007 (7.92%), the years of the EU enlargement in the Central Eastern Europe which Romania has been subject to in the second phase together with neighbouring Bulgaria. However, after a significant growth in 2008 (by 7.1%) the forecasts for 2009 and 2010 are much below that figure with GDP decreasing by 4% and facing a symbolic recovery of just 1% respectively. This is a result of the big dependency of the Romanian companies on their Western business partners and still too small domestic consumption which is not able to offset the lost orders in the crisis economy. Similarly as in Poland the hard landing might be less severe due to high spending on the infrastructure with usage of the EU funds.

Inflation,  which in 2000 has been recorded at the level of over 40% has been curbed and since 2004 achieves a single digit figure despite of the rise in 2007 to 6.57% (due to the volatility of food prices due to low domestic agricultural production, a depreciating RON and rising fuel prices) followed by the 2008 result of 6.3%. Forecasts for the coming years assume that inflation rates will amount at 6.1% (2009) and 4.3% (2010), still relatively high values as for the economy in recession.

The inflationary threat has been fought by the the National Bank of Romania by raising in mid 2008 the key policy rate to 10%, from 9.75% to prevent higher inflation rates. Key reasons included a growth in consumption, higher wages not matched by productivity gains, a relaxation of income and fiscal policies determined by the local and general elections and the related risks of economic overheating. In fact the Bank acknowledged that it might need to use all its instruments in order to respond to high inflationary pressures. However, current forecast predict central bank to reduce rates again to the level of 8.5% in 2009 and 7% in 2010.

The Romanian currency, Leu (RON) which has been introduced in the 2005 currency reform has been loosing value against Euro in 2008 (average exchange rate reached 3.68 compared with 3.34 in 2007) and this trend is also forecasted to last in 2009 as the level of RON 4.39 for a single Euro might be realised.

The average unemployment rate continued its decline path from 5.4% in 2006 to 4.3% in 2007 and it is estimated that it will reach 4% by the end of 2008. However, as the economy will decline the unemployment rate is forecasted to hike to the level of 8.7% in 2009 and to be slightly reduced in 2010 amounting at 8%.

Since the stabilisation of the Romanian economy (mainly after 1997) and after attaining European Union membership, the Romanian economy has attracted significant investment. Between 2003 and 2004, following progress in the implementation of structural reforms, FDI inflows totalled EUR 7bn. In 2006, the FDI represented 8.9% of the GDP (EUR 8.3bn), while in 2007 it represented 5.9% of the GDP (EUR 3.2bn, with EUR 0.8bn coming from the purchase of Electrica Muntenia Sud by ENEL) and in 2008 it was recorded at 6.6% of GDP (EUR 9bn). Values forecasted at 2009 and 2010 are the equivalent of 3.6% and 3.3% of the GDP respectively.

According to the 2006 World Bank report, Romania currently ranks 49th out of 175 economies in the ease of doing business, scoring higher than other countries in the region such as Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Infrastructure and technological environment

The Romanian transportation network is a major recipient of EU regional funds, as it is currently underdeveloped. At the beginning of 2006, the railway network had 11,385 km of track, of which only 3,888km was electrified.
There are 153,359 km of roadways of which 103,671km are paved, including ca. 230 km of motorways – both the railway and road networks are underdeveloped in terms of km per 1000 km² in relation to the other countries in the region, such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. The Merchant Marine fleet consists of 142 ships.
In 2006 there were 19m mobile phone users and around 3.3mn of the internet users in Romania.

Social environment

The population of Romania is 22.33m people, and the number of Romanians is slowly declining; the population growth rate is -0.12% .

Romania’s population has been multiethnic for centuries, mainly due to frequently changing borders and influences of two mighty, multinational empires – Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Osman Empire. Today, slightly less than 90% of the population is ethnic Romanian, and nearly 7% is Hungarian – the largest ethnic minority in Romania. Other ethnic groups are: Roma (2.5%), Ukrainian (0.3%), German (0.3%) Russian (0.2%) and Turkish (0.2%).
The official language of Romania is Romanian.

Political environment

Romania has a total surface area of 237,500 km2. Bucharest, the nation’s capital, is located in the southern part of the country. Other major cities include Iasi, Cluj – Napoca, Timisoara, Constanta, Craiova, Galati and Brasov. Romania is divided in 41 administrative regions called judetes.
After the end of Ceausescu’s regime in December 1989, Romania embraced democracy and the Euro-Atlantic integration became the main objective of its foreign policy. The first years of the transition to democracy (during Ion lliescu first residential terms) were marred by lack of structural reforms, political and administrative uncertainty, civil and ethnic unrest. After 1997 the political and economic life moved away from the bureaucratic and administrative obstacles and Romania regained the US and Western capitals’ interest. Moreover, after the first successful privatizations, foreign direct investments were attracted, as a means to revitalize the economy and modernise the outdated capital and production practices.

The problematic issues, outlined also by the European Commission are: the reform of the justice, tackling corruption, and an increased capacity to absorb European Union Structural and Cohesion Funds. The country is expected to join the Euro zone between 2012 and 2014.
The following factors can be considered as the main reasons for corruption in Romania:

• incomplete legal framework and selective enforcement of existing laws,
• excessive regulation of the economy by the state,
• close links between the political and the economical elite,
• low capacity of advocacy in the society,
• public sector contracts are still major source of business and decision makers earn very little,
• low public access to information of government decisions and operations,
• tradition / social acceptance.

General data

Area: 237,500 sq km
Population: 21.4mn (2008)
Capital city: Bucharest
Language: Romanian (official), Hungarian is spoken by ca. 7% of the population
Ethnic groups: Romanian 89.5%, Hungarian 6.6%, Roma 2.5%, Ukrainian 0.3%, German 0.3%, Russian 0.2%, Turkish 0.2%, other 0.4%
Land boundaries: Ukraine 531 km, Moldova 450 km, Bulgaria 608 km, Serbia 476 km, Hungary 443 km

Major economic indicators

	2006	2007	2008	2009f	2010f
GDP (EUR bn)	97.8	123.8	136.9	124.2	139.2
Population (mn)	21.6	21.5	21.4	21.3	21.2
GDP per capita (EUR)	4,530	5,751	6,391	5,829	6,565
GDP (constant prices y-o-y %)	7.9	6.2	7.1	-4.0	1.0
Exports, real, y-o-y (%)	10.4	7.9	19.4	-6.7	6.5
Imports, real, y-o-y (%)	22.6	27.2	17.5	-12.4	6.0
CPI (average, y-o-y %)	6.6	4.8	7.9	6.1	4.3
Central bank reference rate	8.75	7.50	10.25	8.50	7.00
Monthly wage, nominal (EUR)	246	313	348	312	338
Unemployment rate (%)	5.4	4.3	4.0	8.7	8.0
Net FDI (EUR bn)	8.7	7.2	9.0	4.5	4.6
FDI % GDP	8.9	5.8	6.6	3.6	3.3
FX reserves (EUR bn)	22.9	27.2	28.3	33.3	32.6
(Cur.Acc-FDI)/GDP (%)	-1.5	-7.7	-5.7	-5.1	-3.8
Exchange rate to USD AVG	2.80	2.43	2.50	3.39	3.34
Exchange rate to EUR AVG	3.52	3.34	3.68	4.39	4.39

Last update: Q2 2009 

Useful data

Currency: Leu (RON)
Time zone: GMT +2
Area code: +40


If you would like to find out more on the Romanian market opportunities please do not hesitate to contact us directly:
phone: (48 12) 618 90 80
faks (48 12) 618 90 08
e-mail: [email protected]

Romania Examples of projects