THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE LOW-TECHNOLOGY MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN ROMANIA. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS.

The global economy experienced one of the most significant economic contractionsdue to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Romanian economy, which is strongly integrated into the European Union, contracted by over 10 percent in the second quarter of 2020, the strongest quarterly contraction in the last 25 years. Moreover, Romania's industrial structure still has to converge with that of the European Union, as it has a higher weight of low-technology manufacturing compared to other EU countries making it more vulnerable to the COVID-19 shock. In this context, this paper analyzes the dynamics of production and employment in the lowtechnology activities specific to the Romanian manufacturing industry and compares the dynamics in Romania with the main economies in the region and the EU average. The impact of the COVID-19 shock is also captured through an autoregressive vector model, which indicates a strong impact, especially for low-technology activities, which are more vulnerable to mobility restrictions and the acceleration of digitalization trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]