Europe should not see an inflation spiral as a spike in energy prices
is expected to fade next year and there is slack in the continent’s
labor market, the IMF European Department chief, Alfred Kammer said on
Wednesday, 20 October. He explained that a supply-demand mismatch on
energy was partly due to the restart of economic activity and other
factors such as the weather.
Romania ranks 5th in the European Union in terms of annual inflation,
with a 5.2% rate, according to the latest data published by Eurostat,
much above the 3.6% EU average. Eurostat points out that the largest
share in the euro area inflation rate comes from energy products (+
1.63%), followed by services (+ 0.72%), non-energy industrial goods (+
0.57%), as well as food, alcohol and tobacco (+ 0.44%).
The industrial constructions market fell by 5.72% at national level in
the first half of 2021, compared to 2020, according to a relevant study
published on Wednesday. The data analyzed by the site sales assistance
platform Victa.ro show that there were 2,762 monitored industrial
investments in the first half of 2020 and their number decreased to
2,604 in 2021. The most investments were announced in June (699
industrial projects), above the maximum level for the same period of
2020, while January is at the other end of the classification, with
only 280 identified projects.
Wolf Theiss provided legal assistance to Banca Comercială Română within
its first issue of Senior Preferential Green Bonds, worth RON 500
million, with 5% interest rate and due in 2028, based on its EMTN Multi
Issuer Program. The international team involved in this project,
coordinated by partner lawyers Claus Schneider and Claudia Chiper, was
made up of capital market experts from Wolf Theiss, namely senior
lawyer Nikolaus Dinhof-Renezeder and lawyers Andreea Tudorache and
Sebastian Prakljacic.
According to OTP Bank analysts, the 0.25% increase in the monetary
policy interest rate decided by the National Bank of Romania is the
first step in a series of necessary key rate increases to balance the
effects of the political crisis and of the rising inflation. NBR raised
the key rate to 1.5% at the beginning of October in order to adapt to
market conditions and to the influences of international trends. The
recent signs to have indicated this evolution were the increase in
interbank interest rates and the upward change of the international
yield curve, which triggered higher risk costs for Romanian assets.
Moreover, as European energy prices continue to grow, domestic
political uncertainty has deepened, posing a risk to local fiscal
consolidation.
The national network of medical imaging and radiology clinics Medima
Health will end the first year of activity on the Romanian market with
six operational clinics at national level, following an over EUR 7
million investment volume. Next year, the company plans to inaugurate
three more units, in Bucharest and in the rest of the country, and
expects to finalize the construction of the Oncology Diagnostic Center
in Târgu - Mureş, whose total investment amounts to about EUR 5.5
million.
Nucul de Aur Agricultural Cooperative, based in Suceava and formed of
20 fruit and vegetable producers from Suceava, Iaşi, Botoşani and
Vaslui Counties, has finalized the RON 5.8 million investment in a
dehydrated fruit factory, financed from European funds and a bank loan.
Representatives of Nucul de Aur Cooperative have indicated that they
have put the plum washing and dehydration line into operation, and will
dehydrate apples as well starting from December.
This year, WDP has invested EUR 14 million in the acquisition of lands
in Romania alone, in Dragomireşti and Ştefăneştii de Jos. These include
a 60,000 square meter plot of land, in Timişoara, a EUR 5 million
investment, located near the Sport Mechanical Workshop bicycle factory,
which is a supplier for Decathlon. Another project consists in the
construction of a parking lot in Ştefăneştii de Jos, close to other WDP
projects. The EUR 4 million investment will be finalized by the end of
this year.
On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) unanimously
approved the notification filed by 50 MPs regarding the
unconstitutional nature of Romanian Parliament’s Decision no. 5/2020
approving the state of alert and the measures established through
Government Decision no. 394/2020 regarding the state of alert and the
measures applying during it to prevent and combat the effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Court indicated that Government
Decision no. 394/2020 continued to generate legal effects and remained
in force in its unmodified version based on the provisions of Romanian
Parliament’s Decision no. 5/2020.
On Tuesday, 19 October, the European Commission took another step
towards reforming the EU’s much-discussed fiscal rules, including the
bloc’s strict debt and deficit limits enshrined in the Stability and
Growth Pact. The Commission Vice-President in charge of the economy,
Valdis Dombrovskis, and the EU’s Economic Affairs Commissioner, Paolo
Gentiloni, presented the re-launch of the EU’s economic governance
review in Brussels on Tuesday.
President Klaus Iohannis has announced the restrictions that could be
imposed amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The government will decide upon the
exact restrictions by Friday, after experts establish these norms in
detail. Thus, according to the new decisions to be made, only
vaccinated people will be allowed to travel at night, and the Covid-19
digital green certificate will become mandatory for most activities.
Moreover, wearing a protective mask will be mandatory in all indoor and
outdoor areas.
Tudorel Andrei, the president of the National Institute of Statistics,
stated on Wednesday, during an online event, that Romania could have a
population of 17.8 million people in 2030 if the current downward trend
was maintained. The country will thus fall from the 6th place in the
European Union at this moment, to the 7th place, being outranked by the
Netherlands. According to the presented data, Romania’s population was
of 19,186,201 people on 1 January 2021, compared to 20,121,641 people
in 2011. Tudorel Andrei said that a change had occurred in the share of
factors leading to the reduction of the population in this period.