Romania Ranks 5th In Emerging Europe By Vulnerability To Fin Pressures – Fitch

"Fitch has constructed an index of relative vulnerability to external financing pressures, based on CA balance plus FDI, external debt repayments due this year and net external debt stocks. Latvia, Croatia, Lithuania, Turkey, Estonia, Bulgaria and Romania come out as most vulnerable," the rating agency’s report reads.

According to Fitch, Latvia ranks first, followed by Croatia, while Lithuania and Turkey both rank third.

Bulgaria ranks seventh, followed by Hungary.

George Ştefan, lect. univ. dr şi Cristian Socol, prof. univ.dr., ASE Bucureşti: S-a grăbit Fitch când a redus perspectiva de rating a României? Ce argumente sunt pentru ca Standard & Poor`s şi Moody`s să nu procedeze la fel? Şi 10 întrebări.

Analysts say that substantial current account deficits are a concern across much of emerging European states and one heightened by the credit crunch. This was the main reason Fitch revised the rating Outlooks to Negative from Stable on Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.

Economists say that encouragingly, current account deficits are now narrowing in Estonia and Latvia, but a clear adjustment of unsustainable macroeconomic imbalances has yet to take hold in Bulgaria and Romania.

Fitch maintained its October estimation on Romania’s euro adoption target date, at 2015, one year later from the Romanian authorities’ estimations.

The rating agency also maintained its previous estimations for Hungary (2014), Lithuania (2013) and Poland (2012), and changed its forecasts by one year for Bulgaria (2015), the Czech Republic (2014), Estonia (2013) and Lithuania (2013).