VIDEO INTERVIEW Black Sea gas exploitation and the banking system are the areas of interest for Romanian investors in the coming years
The themes that will continue to be of interest in the following for investors, including from the perspective of investment funds, are related to energy: the exploitation of gases from the Black Sea (Neptune Deep), in the first phase for Petrom and Romgaz, and further on for Transgaz, said Adrian Negru, CEO of Raiffeisen Asset Management, in a video interview.
“We will see how those gases will be reflected in the Romanian economy as a whole, whether we are talking about gas-fired power plants or other processing for that gas,” said Negru.
He believes the banking system is still proving resilient.
“Even if we had a decrease in disposable income at the population level, companies had to deal with higher taxation, fortunately, it seems that the companies themselves, as well as the banks' portfolio, are proving to be quite resilient, at least for now. We do not see non-performing loans increasing”, explained the representative of Raiffeisen Asset Management.
In his opinion, if the Government will do its job, he believes that we will have a stimulus, namely the interest rates at which the State borrows should decrease.
“If these interest rates decrease, we should have a generalized decrease in them throughout the financial system in Romania. Then, being disciplined, on the other hand, you are doing good as a State because you are tempering your interest expenses that have reached an absolutely frightening level and it is clear that we can no longer continue in that direction,” says Adrian Negru.
- “So you temper how much money you have to spend from the budget to cover interest expenses, it lowers interest rates. If you do these things well, you allow the whole economy to borrow at lower interest rates.”
- “In this way, banks will be motivated to give loans at more competitive interest rates, companies and the population can borrow under better conditions, and in this way you have a natural stimulus.”
DacianWe cannot have low taxes, at least they should be stable
“If I look at it from the perspective of the taxpayer, I prefer to have low taxes, if possible. If not, at least they should be stable, that is, they should not change every year. In the last 2 years, there have been many discussions about the profit from the capital market. If we are not going to have taxes at the level of the last years, at least we should have them stable for the following years. That is, after the new increases to 3% and 6%, there should be no more discussions next year related to other increases, or changing the taxation system”, claims Adrian Negru.
According to him, the current withholding tax system is an advantage in itself for the current level of the investment funds market.
“I don't know if we could have more than 1 million investors in investment funds in Romania, if we didn't have taxation at source. 3 and 6% on this system, if it's not at the maximum limit, is very close. I don't think that higher rates can be tolerated on a system where you can't deduct losses. I have the administrative advantage that I keep my money at source, but I can't deduct losses”, explained the investment expert.
In the capital market, he says, the 6% level of the tax rate is relatively high, especially for those who have a more dynamic trading style, with more markups, transactions.
- “Paying 6% every time you win something starts to weigh you down.”
“Perhaps the current rates of 1 and 3% seem small, but they do not apply to the net profit. Everything I earn I share with the State, when I lose, it's my business. 3 and 6% I hope will remain stable. If someone has other ideas to change the tax system, I think this should happen only when ANAF will have the ability not to send 1 million people to submit declarations,” the Raiffeisen Asset Management official also pointed out.
Article supported by AAF
