Five years under economic crisis. What happened to the Romanian economy during this time

Exactly 5 years ago the economic crisis officially came about . Within days of the Lehman Brothers investment bank collapse, trillions of dollars evaporated on the stock market, hundreds of banks and investment funds in the U.S. have gone bankrupt, and thousands of companies have put a lock on their door.

The shock wave was quickly felt in our country.

In the first half of 2008, economic growth was about 9%. Nothing announced the disaster to come a few months later. But the disaster has occurred, and in 2009 our country officially entered recession. The economic decline that year was over 7 percent. In 2010 , the country was still in recession, with a decline of 1.3%.

The economy has slightly recovered only after a good agricultural year, in 2011. The economic growth of 2.5% was then far from the performance of 2008. In 2013, growth is projected at 2%, after last year's growth was only 0.7%.

The effects of the crisis were immediately felt in the Romanians pockets. The exchange rate went up at a quick pace. In just a few months, the euro reached RON 4.2 from 3.5 lei. That made bills a whole lot more expensive for the population. And wages dropped. In the public sector wages were cut by 25%. In contrast, the value added tax was increased by 5 percent, and the Romanians were forced to pay for more expensive food. 

It is no wonder that the austerity measures and the economic pressure have left jobless hundreds of thousands of Romanian. The unemployment rate has doubled during the crisis. Deep scars were left on the foreign investment chapter. They fell from 9.4 billion Euros to 1.6 billion Euros in 2012. This year, investments are expected to increase slightly reaching 2 billion Euros.