Paradigmele istoriei. Datoria publică a României în ultimii 100 de ani[History paradigms: the public debt of Romania in the last 100 years]

The study focuses on the analysis of Romania’s public debt over the last 100 years, on three distinct historical periods (interwar, under communist regime, and the transition to the market economy), characterized, despite essential system differencies, by the same paradigm of a sinusoidal trajectory of the economic development, fundamentally affected by the overindebtedness costs and/or, paradoxically, by those of debt liquidation. The paper highlights the main causes of the public debt accumulation, the destinations of loans, trying to assess the sustainability parameters thoughout the last century. It was found that, in terms of debt sustainability, Romania had, in most of the time, an excessive indebtedness degree, accentuated by heavy financial and political consequences of the two world wars before 1990 and, after this, by the transition costs and the global crisis effects, which impacted the macroeconomic situation of the country.