Provocări în perioada tranziției la economia de piață în România. Creșterea gradului de îndatorare externă și internă[Challenges facing Romania during the period of transition to a market-based economy. The increase in the degree of external and internal indebtedness]

Under the circumstances of the globally interconnected world, facing currently with growing uncertainties and capital flows volatility, the assessment of external and internal indebtedness of a country could be crucial for designing better policies in order to stimulate recovery and sustainable economic growth. The paper focuses on the analysis of the main causes of the accelerated increase in Romania’s external and internal debt during the transition period, enhanced by the effects of the global financial crisis, which were neither anticipated nor countered. It was found out that, in terms of international debt sustainability standards, adjusted for Romania, the country has reached an excessive indebtedness degree in the post-crisis years, along with the deterioration of the macroeconomic situation. Among the main conclusions of the paper, strong efforts targeting coherent macroeconomic policies aimed, as central objectives, at raising the potential output growth and the resilience to shocks from the external environment have been underlined, toward the recovery of Romania’s financial position and ensuring the external and internal debt sustainability.