Seigniorage and Inflation Tax in Romania: What Is the Executive Giving up by Adopting the Euro?

Abstract

[Abstract] This paper is concerned with measuring the seigniorage in Romania since the fall of communism and the potential gains after passing to euro. Starting from the balance sheet of the central bank, we estimated these levels of seigniorage for a period of 27 years. Our findings suggest that this source of revenue was at very high rates in the period of the 90’s, mostly due to the huge prolonged inflation rates. Ever since the independence of the central bank, these levels of seigniorage dropped and became constant, at around 1-2% of the GDP. Also, we computed the potential gains due to euro adoption. We showed that as Romania converge with the rest of the Eurozone its seigniorage potential gains from euro adoption drops. Because these gains are only very small in relation to national income, we argue that the implications of giving up own currency are not budget related.