Perspectives on Romania's Economic Development in the 1980s

An inquiry into prospects for Romania&s;s economy in the 1980s could include many dimensions. By 1980 Romania had passed through one century, in formal terms at least, as an independent state. Its course of political and economic development was bent by both world wars. Romania&s;s employment in agriculture has been a residual determined by overall labor force growth and job creation in industry. The key processes in Romanian economic development have been the rate of investment and capital accumulation, the proportions of investment allocated to industry and the growth of industrial capital, and the industrial capital:labor ratio and the growth of labor in industry. Romania&s;s rapid growth in the 1970s resulted from the ability to absorb large numbers of persons from agriculture into its industrial labor force. An important difference between Romanian agriculture and its neighbor, Bulgaria, remains a possibility for a better Romanian agricultural future.