equal to that of germany ( as is the case with certain approaches put forward in hungary or poland ). however, we need to achieve a real convergence level of at least 70 – 75 percent of the eurozone average. otherwise we would be insufficiently developed and, therefore, vulnerable to asymmetric shocks and unable to synchronise our business cycle with that of other euro area economies. however, we must take care that the level of convergence increases in a sustainable manner. we should be able to preserve the pace of this process, and once steps forward have been made, we may not stop or go backwards. past achievements in nominal and real convergence, while significant, do not guarantee future success. to this end, allow me to bring up an old, but reliable principle. the latin saying festina lente is perfectly suitable in this case : hurrying in a slow manner, if i can say so, on the convergence path means achieving a sustainable pace in the medium and long term. in other words, we need to be a marathoner, and not a sprinter. our commitment to join the euro area is indisputable, yet this process has to be managed in a very careful manner. 2. finding the right balance between consumption and investment during recent years, the contribution of investment to growth was smaller than it should have been, with consumption spending being the main driver of gdp dynamics. welfare has increased markedly, but the concern for rendering these welfare gains sustainable should prompt a switch to policies aimed at fostering investment, thus boosting the productive potential of the economy. a short - term focus on economic policies and paying no heed to accumulating macroeconomic disequilibria ought to be avoided, as they eventually lead to suboptimal outcomes. the adequate approach is to ensure a rebalancing between consumption and investment, not by discouraging consumption, but by stimulating investment. this is also a way to reduce development gaps between romania ’ s regions. indeed, the eu accession acted as a catalyst for real convergence at country level, yet development imbalances in romania did not decrease significantly. romania currently has regions that are similar in terms of living standards and development levels to western economies, while some other areas are considerably lagging behind : in 2017, the wealthiest region in romania was almost four times richer than the poorest one ( based on regional per capita gdp ). therefore, even though the eu membership has acted as a catalyst for country - level

equilibria, as well as higher - quality public goods – especially highways connecting different regions of romania, but also our country with the west. after all, wages are not the only side of the emigration story. 4. keeping the external deficit in check the wage matter is also closely linked to the topical issue of ensuring a balanced external position. to the extent to which the upward path of wage costs is too steep, it gets very difficult to preserve competitiveness, not only on external markets, but also on the domestic market. if the romanian companies are unable to gain market shares in the tough competition with rivals on both aforementioned markets, the gap between imports and exports widens, causing the deepening of the trade deficit and hence of the current account deficit ; the latter is already at a level that raises concerns, also in terms of its financing by flows deemed stable ( such as fdi and european funds ), which have no longer fully covered it. romania ’ s sizeable external imbalance is singular in the region in terms of size and trend. it owes to the faster growth of domestic absorption than that of domestic output, as well as to nonprice competitiveness issues of the romanian economy manifest in certain production sectors. relevant from this perspective is the unfavourable comparison with czechia, poland and hungary, three countries where, the same as in romania, monetary policy is managed under the inflation targeting strategy and there is a floating exchange rate in place. 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches speaking of the exchange rate, i cannot help mentioning that the hasty adoption of government emergency ordinance no. 114 at the end of last year contributed, through the uncertainty created on the market, among others, to an episode of moderate depreciation of the domestic currency in january 2019. thus, the relative stability of the exchange rate of the leu, which we have all got used to, was a bit affected. obviously, a certain flexibility margin in its evolution is natural, but allow me to point out that it is not the exchange rate that should act as a correction tool for the external imbalance, which can be rather mitigated by way of structural reforms and fiscal adjustment. in this context, it is also worth underlining that it is important to avoid a significant appreciation of the leu, which might be induced by a too high interest rate differential versus peer countries. in czechia, poland and hungary, the monetary policy rate is substantially lower than that of the nbr