Central bank vice-president advises stepping up vaccination rate for faster economic growth

Romania will clock up a faster economic growth if it speeds up Covid vaccination and lands a top position by collective immunization; this could bring a competitive edge in foreign trade and in the race to attract foreign investment, vice-president of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Leonardo Badea told the online conference "Upgrade Romania - investments, the lifeblood of the economy" organized by DC News on Friday.

Badea pointed out that this is his personal opinion that doesn't involve or engage the central bank in any way.

In his opinion, Romania felt the third wave of the pandemic with a delay of about a month compared to other countries, which somehow allowed the economy to muster resilience.

"Vaccination is the only strategy that will allow the normalization and opening of economic and social life. The economy's capacity to heal depends on how quickly we manage to achieve herd immunity through vaccination. This is well known internationally. Therefore we shouldn't content ourselves with this rate of vaccination, which is a short distance from the EU average, but for the benefit of the local economy, it would be best to strive for a top position among European countries by the proportion of the vaccinated population and aim for good performance," Badea said.

He also considers that Romania should reach immunization as soon as possible also in order to win the race for attracting foreign investors.

We cannot allow ourselves to be left behind, because this would expose us to potential capital rebalancing, argues the BNR official. AGERPRES