Mugur Isarescu: Romania’s central figure

While finance ministers come and go, one man has been a figure of constancy for the nation’s economy: central banker Mugur Isarescu. He has created a fully functioning central bank in a market economy from the shell of a communist regime. With inflation under control and the exchange rate stable, what is his next challenge?

Illustration: Pete Ellis

The soaring walls and revolving doors of Romania’s communist-era finance ministry on Bucharest’s Constitution Square expose a deeply rooted instability that hampers one of Europe’s more volatile economies.

Portraits of former ministers are displayed around the walls of the ministry’s foyer, their faces looking beyond those doors to the pompous People’s Palace, one of the world’s largest buildings, that dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had built for him before he was toppled during the revolutions that swept eastern Europe in 1989.

Thanks for your interest in Euromoney!
To unlock this article: