'It is clear that Romania should not enter the euro zone other than when it is ready and, unfortunately, it lost a lot of time after 2007, when it could have used the opportunity to prepare its euro zone accession', Lazea said in a conference focused on 'Romania 2013: economic perspectives', held in Bucharest.
The Central bank official considers that joining the euro zone cannot be a disaster for the member countries and believes that belonging to the single currency zone helped countries facing at present major crises.
'I do not agree with the fact that it is a disaster. Absolutely it is not so, because otherwise where Greece, Portugal and other countries would have been, in case they were not forced by the euro zone to reform their economy. What would have happened to their deficits, with their exports? How about borrowing on the free market, at exorbitant interest rates, in the absence of the help offered them by the European Central Bank at very low interest rates. To place everything on a balance plate, saying that the euro zone is a disaster, is simply untrue', Lazea underlined.
