This study evaluates the performance of financial markets in rural areas of Romania based on the 1998 rural household, rural enterprise, and financial intermediary surveys, along with other official statistical data for 1997. It presents empirical evidence indicating that constrained access to credit markets negatively influences the investment behavior of households and enterprises. The report recommends a detailed government strategy to correct the observed shortcomings of rural financial markets and identifies new challenges that are likely to appear.

Agriculture remains the main source of employment and livelihood for the large rural population of many transition countries, especially among the former Soviet republics. Accordingly, the World Bank continuously monitors the progress of land reform and farm restructuring in the region because of the potential impact of these processes on rural development and poverty alleviation in rural areas. The present study on Belarus is the latest addition to a long and growing series of World Bank publications on land reform and farm restructuring in the former socialist countries of Europe and...