Total average monthly income in Q3/2022 was, in nominal terms, RON 6,668 per household and RON 2,662 per person, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics on Wednesday. Household expenditure mainly targets food, non-food goods, services and transfers to public and private administration and social security budgets in the form of taxes, contributions, levies, as well as covering needs related to household production.
Conflict and geo-economic tensions have triggered a series of deeply interconnected global risks, including energy and food supply crunches, which are likely to persist for the next two years and strong increases in the cost of living and debt servicing, according to the Global Risks Report drawn up by the World Economic Forum. These crises risk undermining efforts to tackle longer-term risks, notably those related to climate change, biodiversity and investment in human capital.
The Ministry of Finance cashed RON 521 million after having achieved its goal to connect 600,000 cash registers to the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF)’s computer system and following the replenishment of amounts spent in the fourth quarter from the state budget for investments under the PNRR milestones, according to a press release. Following the connection of the 600,000 cash registers, the business sector can deduct the expenses incurred for the purchase and commissioning of electronic fiscal cash registers (AMEXs) from the income/profit tax.
On Wednesday, the Government approved the draft law regulating Romania’s participation in the guarantees for the exceptional macro-financial assistance granted to Ukraine by the EU. Romania’s contribution to the total guaranteed amount is EUR 60,453,864. According to a press release issued by the Government, the draft law is based on Decision (EU) 2022/1628 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 September 2022 providing exceptional macro-financial assistance to Ukraine, reinforcing the common provisioning fund by guarantees by Member States and by specific provisioning for some financial liabilities related to Ukraine guaranteed under Decision No 466/2014/EU, and amending Decision (EU) 2022/1201.
BRD - Groupe Société Générale (stock symbol BRD) has convened an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders on 16 February to approve the borrowing of maximum EUR 300 million through one or several issues of own funds instruments, up to the maximum ceiling. According to the notice to attend published at Bucharest Stock Exchange, the loans will have a fixed or variable interest rate and an annual or semi-annual frequency.
Insurance companies operating on the mandatory civil liability car insurance (RCA) segment concluded 262,032 direct settlement clauses in the first nine months of 2022, 14% more than in the similar period of 2021, according to information published by the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) in its report on the evolution of the insurance market in the first nine months of 2022. The value of gross written premiums corresponding to the over 262,000 direct settlement clauses concluded by RCA insurers amounted to RON 43.4 million, up by 87.3% year-on-year.
Raiffeisen Asset Management (RAM), Raiffeisen group’s investment fund management company, will have a new CEO, namely Adrian Negru, starting from 1 February. Moreover, the management of Friedrich Wilhem Raiffeisen (FWR), Raiffeisen Bank’s private banking division, will be taken over by Alexandru Cristescu, the financial institution has announced. Adrian Negru has 16 years of professional experience, most of it in the investments sector, both within Raiffeisen Asset Management and Raiffeisen Bank. He has coordinated the Private Banking Division over the past four years.
GreenWeee, a company that recycles electrical household appliances, part of the Green Group, is to open a new waste collection plant in the first part of this year. In 2023 as well, the group also plans to finalize a new glass recycling plant, an over EUR 10 million investment, which will process both glass packaging and flat glass. As a result, GreenGlass’s capacity will reach 260,000 tons per year.
Developer with Romanian capital Alsin Management is to invest more than EUR 40 million in the development of First Estates Pipera, the first residential project in Romania to offer free heating to all its tenants. The project will consist of 464 apartments in four buildings and over 500 parking spaces. The first phase, already under construction, includes 232 double studios and two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments and will be delivered in April 2024.
Someș Water Company, subordinated to Cluj County Council, has finalized an investment worth about RON 61 million (over EUR 12 million), financed through the Large Infrastructure Operational Program - POIM 2014-2020, for the rehabilitation and extension of water and sewerage networks in the city of Gherla and ten other neighboring localities. The investment involved the construction and rehabilitation of over 70 kilometers of new water main pipes and networks, with five pumping stations and four water management units. A total of 1,415 connections to property boundary were carried out within the project.
Gym memberships that companies will be able to offer to their employees will be tax-free and deductible within the limit of EUR 400/year per employee, according to a law promulgated by President Klaus Iohannis, which is to be published in the Official Gazette of Romania. The law regulates the tax regime applicable to the equivalent value of subscriptions for the use of sports facilities, for the practice of sport and physical education for maintenance, prophylactic or therapeutic purposes.
The Ministry of Family has announced that the draft law aimed at preventing children’s separation from their families, promoted by the Ministry of Family, Youth and Equal Opportunities and assumed by Romania in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), was approved during the Government meeting on Wednesday, 11 January. The draft law is a first in terms of legislative regulation in this area and stipulates, among other things, the establishment of the Child Observatory, an IT module within the National Information System, available to local authorities, which will allow identifying and registering all children at risk of separation from their families.
On Wednesday, 11 January 2023, President Klaus Iohannis promulgated the law reducing the period of time when accounting records must be preserved from ten to five years. The normative act stipulates that the mandatory accounting records and supporting documents shall be kept in companies’ archives for five years starting from 1 July of the year following the tax year in which they were drawn up.
The European Commission has stressed it is aware and mindful of the impact that the EU’s so-called solidarity lanes to boost Ukraine’s grain exports have on neighbouring countries such as Romania or Poland. The EU launched the solidarity lanes initiative at the end of May 2022 to help Ukraine export agricultural goods via all possible routes – including rail, road and river transport – in the face of disruptions caused by Russia’s war. Almost one year after the start of the war, the measures have proven successful: In December, a total of three million tonnes of grain was exported via the solidarity lanes, according to Michael Scannell, deputy director-general at the Commission.
The National Employment Agency (ANOFM) has announced that the number of vacant jobs at national level has reached 34,605, while employers in the European Economic Area offer 84 jobs to Romanian workers, through the Eures Romania network. Of the 34,605 vacant jobs declared by employers to employment agencies, 1,784 are for people with higher education.
The number of real estate transactions in Romania grew by 0.2% in 2022, compared to the previous year, to over 700,000 transactions, despite decreases recorded in eight months of the year, especially in December, according to data from the National Agency for Land Registry and Real Estate Publicity. This is the best result in the past six years, according to a Profit.ro analysis. Transactions in 2022 mark the third consecutive year of advances, after 16% more sales contracts were concluded in 2021 than in 2020, and previously, 2020 saw about 12% more transactions than 2019. 2019 and 2018 were years of declines.