New
Daily Newsletter
11 February 2021
Summary
Macroeconomic (2) || Financial (2) || Investment (3) || Legislative (2) || Politics (2) || Social (2) |
Prime Minister Florin Cîțu has announced new austerity measures |
The pension point will not be frozen until 2022, the Government will not grant new holiday vouchers this year and will extend the validity of previously issued ones, and free rail transport for students will be replaced with the 50% discount offered in the past as well, Prime Minister Florin Cîțu announced after the Government meeting on Tuesday. According to him, the budget will rely on a 13% increase in revenues and on an only 5% increment in expenditures. |
The Government does not target an increase in taxes |
Prime Minister Florin Cîţu has stated that the Government does not target an increase in taxes through the measures planned for approving the state budget, and has explained that the reform of state-owned companies operating at a loss will not involve such an increment. He thus provided an answer to the question how the Government would make sure some state-controlled companies’ restructuring would not be borne by citizens. The question refers to the guarantees offered by the state that there will not be companies or institutions that will lay-off competent people and will only preserve employees who have the right acquaintances or that there will not be any tax increases in order to ensure the necessary financing for certain companies. |
Volume of new retail and business deposits in RON exceeded RON 282 billion in 2020 |
The volume of new retail and business deposits in RON exceeded RON 282 billion in 2020, double than 14 years ago. New deposits in euro reached RON 70.5 billion, and deposit in dollars stood at RON 13.2 billion. New deposits for companies, amounting to RON 224.4 billion, represent 61.35% of the total new loans recorded in 2020, while new deposits for the population, worth RON 141.3 billion, accounted for over 38.65%. |
Banking system recorded liquidity surplus in January |
Banking system recorded RON 8.3 billion liquidity surplus in January, BCR Research analysts indicate in an analysis report. This is the first month since the onset of the Covid-19 health and economic crisis when the banking sector has switched to surplus in relation to NBR. The banking system’s liquidity deficit related to NBR remained constant in the last two months of 2020, at about –RON 0.6 billion |
Piteşti City Hall has accessed a European project |
Piteşti City Hall has accessed a nearly RON 22 million (EUR 4.5 million) European project for the reconversion and refurbishment of degraded, vacant or unused lands and surfaces. The project’s implementation period is 67 months, during the period 1 June 2018 – 31 December 2023. Following the project’s implementation, the green area in the city of Piteşti will increase by more than 20 hectares. |
Rondocarton made EUR 12.5 million investments in 2020 |
Rondocarton, part of the Austrian group Rondo Ganahl, the biggest corrugated cardboard manufacturer on Romania, made EUR 12.5 million investments in 2020, mainly for the modernization and automation of its plants in Apahida, Cluj County, and Târgovişte, Dâmboviţa County. The two units have a total production capacity of 120,000 square meters of corrugated cardboard packaging per year, and the company sells most of its production, about 90%, on the local market. |
Several buildings with high seismic risk will be rehabilitated |
The Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration announced yesterday that it was working on a draft normative act for the allocation of RON 1 billion, in several tranches, over a four-year period, for the consolidation of buildings with first and second seismic risk level. According to Minister Cseke Attila, the financing, by the state, of works on seismic risk buildings owned by private legal entities is motivated by the public interest to protect the citizens inside or in front of those buildings in case of a high magnitude earthquake. |
The law on the derogating tax regime for lands on islands and sandbanks is unconstitutional |
Yesterday, the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) unanimously approved President Klaus Iohannis and the Government’s objections to the Law on the derogating tax regime for lands located on islands and sandbanks. CCR decided that the overall regulation was unconstitutional. The law had been initiated by the former Social Democratic (PSD) Senator Șerban Nicolae. |
Chamber of Deputies adopted draft normative act on establishment of National Investment Company |
Yesterday, the Chamber of Deputies adopted the draft law approving Government Emergency Ordinance 95/2020 amending and completing Government Ordinance 25/2001 on the creation of “C.N.I. - S.A” National Investment Company. The draft law had been adopted by the Senate on 23 June 2020, and the Chamber of Deputies voted as the final decision-making forum. |
Senator Diana Şoşoacă has been excluded from the Alliance for Romanians’ Unity (AUR) |
Senator Diana Şoşoacă has been excluded from the Alliance for Romanians’ Unity (AUR). Yesterday, in Parliament, she stated that Pfizer/BioNTech’s anti-Covid-19 vaccine “destroys the Romanian people’ national matrix”, and Sorin Lavric, a parliamentary group colleague allegedly requested that her microphone should be cut off. AUR Deputy Dan Tanasă has explained that the decision was made at the end of a long line of events. |
The debate on the simple motion against Health Minister will take place on Monday |
The debate, in the Chamber of Deputies, on the simple motion against Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu will take place on Monday, at 17:00, and the vote will be held during Wednesday’s plenary session. The president of the Chamber of Deputies Ludovic Orban has announced that the Social Democratic Party (PSD) gave up the “Government’s Hour” procedure, which would have allowed them to ask Mr. Voiculescu to come to Parliament in order to provide explanations, and will use it for other ministers in the future. |
Government eliminates free rail transport for students |
In this year’s draft budget, the Government has eliminated students’ free access to rail transport. They will benefit, in exchange, from a 50% discount on trips by train throughout the entire year. According to Prime Minister Florin Cîţu, of all the European Union member states, Luxembourg is the only one that offers free rail transport to students, and most states offer discounts between 20% and 50%, Austria having 60% and the Czech Republic – 75%. |