Romanians will see their income drop by 0.8% next year, while in 2010, the year-on-year drop will be 10%, a study of Erste Bank shows. Romania is the only country in Central and Eastern Europe where income will drop in 2011.
The rest of the region will experience an increase of 1%-2.5% in income, due to the competitiveness of the workforce.
In Romania the Executive took very ambitious austerity steps, with a 5% of VAT included. This will result in lower available income due to a higher inflation, the Erste Bank explained.
It goes on to say that the available income - usually set at around 65% of GDP - took a blow from drops in other income, like rents, profit, interest rates.
The good new is that following two years of reduced consumption, this may pick up by 1% due to renewed impetus of banks to provide credits.