The Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic on Romania’s Economic Development

The world is passing through the most difficult exogenous crisis in the history, which severely affects its stability in the long term, risking an uncontrolled slide into uncertainty. Compare to 2008 global financial crisis generated by non-performing loans and their securitization, the new corona virus (COVID19), which appeared in China in late 2019 and turned into an epidemic since January 2020, has severely affected the entire world economy. The pandemic is imposing a heavy burden on individuals and societies and putting health care systems under severe strain. It is obvious that the pandemic will pass, especially in the context of COVID-19 vaccines authorised in the EU following the positive recommendation of the European Medicines Agency fora conditional marketing authorisation for the BioNTech and Pfizer vaccine, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson and Astrazeneca too, but it will leave behind a severe economic crisis. The study is trying to present the main causes and characteristics of the crisis, with special attention to its impact on Romania, which has witnessed an economic downturn in the first half of 2020, registering a decline in Hospitality industry, manufacturing, distribution (other than consumer goods) and transport. To deal with high budget, Romania issued 3,3 billion euros worth of bonds at the end of May 2020. But, in the long term, the external debt burden is increasing, the sustainable development of Romania facing new risks arising from both the global crisis and the internal vulnerabilities.