X-Trade Brokers: Greece’s Crisis Unlikely To Seriously Affect Romania

„The situation in Greece practically exploded in the media over the last few weeks, but the countries’ structural deficiencies are older than that; if they were to have special effects on Romania, we would have seen them already,” said Victor Safta, head of X-Trade Broker’s branch in Romania.

„If the threats were real, than probably the ratings agencies wouldn’t have raised their outlook on Romania recently,” Safta added.

He said a possible slowdown in lending from Greek banks in Romania might be tackled by preparing an alternative plan to cover the resulting deficit.

„The current conditions suggest Greece’s situation is unlikely to affect Romania in a special way. If Romania is to come out of the crisis later than other states in the region, than this will be because of its own mistakes,” Safta said.

Greece’s financial crisis started last fall, when the authorities revealed that the country’s budget gap was at 13% of the gross domestic product, nearly twice what the official statistics had reported and way above the limit admitted in the eurozone.

Greek Alpha Bank and EFG Bank own two of the top lenders in Romania, controlling together around 15% of the total banking assets.