Greek Economy and Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis leaves for an official two-day visit to Romania with the aim to further expand bilateral economic relations, in the framework of a Greek policy for development of Southeastern Europe.

The Greek minister will meet with his Romanian counterpart Varoujan Vosganian and the governor of the country's central bank Mugur Isarescu, while he will address a business lunch organized by the Hellenic-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Greek-Romanian trade relations grew significantly in the last few years. Greek exports to Romania grew by 45.7 pct in 2006 and by 30 pct in 2007, while they almost doubled in the 2006-2007 period to 774 million euros, from 408 million euros in 2005.

Imports from Romania grew 23 pct to 535 million euros in the same period, leaving a trade surplus of 238 million euros, after a trade deficit of 25 million euros in 2005. Building material, oil products, aluminium products and fresh fruit are Greece's main exports to Romania, while the country mainly imports oil products, steel products, pipes and machinery from Romania.

Greek investments to Romania total around 3.0 billion euros, the third largest foreign investor in the country after Holland and Austria. A total of 800 Greek enterprises have activities in Romania, mainly in the fields of banking, commerce, telecommunications, construction and manufacturing.

Greek banks own around 15 pct of the Romanian market, with 300 branches. Hellenic Telecoms owns 54 pct in Romtelecom and 70 pct in Cosmorom.

Source: ANA-MPE

^
top

print this page   send this page