Romania has paid EUR 27 billion interest in the past decade, equivalent
to sums made available through the National Recovery and Resilience
Plan (PNRR). In 2023, if the trend recorded in January continues, more
than EUR 7 billion will go to interest on public debt, which has
exceeded EUR 130 billion (RON 650 billion). Thus, as a comparison, the
state would pay about EUR 35 billion interest alone during the period
2013-2023, as much as Romania’s GDP in 1990.
According to Leonardo Badea, NBR, it is obvious that society is
following the growing complexity of phenomena and processes, which
directly affects the development models of economy, and its sustainable
development is an increasingly urgent need that can no longer be
postponed or kept at the bottom of the priority list. The idea of
economic development under any conditions had existed for a long period
of time, but this idea is no longer an optimal choice given the current
situation where society needs cooperation as much as competition.
Corporate lending had a weak end of year in 2022, the sustained advance
of euro-denominated loans having only partially compensated for the
slowdown in the growth rate of new RON-denominated corporate loans. In
Q4/2022, the stock of RON-denominated loans fell by 5.2%, while the
stock of euro-denominated loans rose by 7.8%, according to a new report
by the National Bank of Romania (NBR) detailing the evolution of
lending by economic branch. The report also indicates that the stock of
bank loans fell in almost all economic sectors in the last three months
of 2022.
Raiffeisen Bank has updated its offer for RON and foreign currency
(EUR, USD)-denominated household deposits. It has thus increased
interest rates on three-month euro-denominated deposits to 2% per year
and, depending on the period, up to 7.5% on RON-denominated deposits
and up to 3.25% per year on USD-denominated deposits, the bank has
announced. Moreover, multiple maturity options are available, in order
to give all clients the possibility to create an emergency fund and
diversify their savings portfolio, according to a press release.
"Avram Iancu" International Airport in Cluj has accessed a European
project worth RON 17.2 million (EUR 3.5 million), of which RON 12.3
million (EUR 2.5 million) represents the European Union’s co-financing
through the 2014-2020 Large Infrastructure Operational Programme, for
carrying out new infrastructure works. The project consists in the
construction of a properly equipped Fire Prevention and Extinction
(PSI) unit to ensure the parking and maintenance of fire engines, as
well as the provision of utilities for the airport’s Private Emergency
Service staff.
Someș Water Company, subordinated to Cluj County Council, is carrying
out an over RON 124 million investment, supported though the Large
Infrastructure Operational Program (POIM). The contract targets the
replacement of the current water supply networks with ductile cast iron
and high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes and works must be finalized
within maximum 15 months, according to a press release issued by Cluj
County Council. The total utilities infrastructure under the Water
Company’s administration measured more than 4,100 km of water mains and
networks at the end of 2022.
Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă met at Victoria Palace with
representatives of Mass Global Energy Rom, the company that acquired
Mintia Thermal Power Plant. An over EUR 1 billion investment plan meant
to turn the thermal power plant into the largest and most efficient
gas-fired power generation capacity in the European Union was presented
during the meeting. This will be achieved by using the most modern
technologies, which will allow, in accordance with the European
taxonomy, the production of at least 1,500 MW.
The Ministry of Health has put up for public consultation a draft
Government Decision amending and completing an earlier Decision that
established the sanctioning of violations of public health norms. The
draft normative act stipulates, among other things, fines for hospitals
that fail to offer relatives the possibility to visit patients and
access to data on the condition of hospitalized relatives, sanctions
for doctors who do not comply with vaccination schedules, and for
non-compliance with hygiene norms in pre-university educational
establishments.
Save Romania Union (USR) MP Diana Buzoianu and USR Senator Ștefan
Pălărie have submitted a draft law to Parliament that would allow
applying to any faculty through a digital platform at national level,
administered by the Ministry of Education. USR has explained that the
legislative proposal is a long-awaited step towards the digitalization
of education and a helping hand for students who sometimes have to
travel hundreds of kilometers to apply to universities in various
university centers.
Liberal (PNL) Alina Gorghiu, interim head of the Senate, announced on
Monday that she had formed a working group in the Senate, together with
the Legislative Council and the Ministry of Research, led by Sebastian
Burduja, to draw up a new research law. She said she had also co-opted
Florin Iordache (ex-PSD), the initiator of the famous Government
Emergency Ordinance (OUG) 13 through which Grindeanu government had
tried to help Liviu Dragnea avoid imprisonment. Alina Gorghiu and
Florin Iordache have no links to research, while Sebastian Burduja only
became familiar with the field after having been appointed Research
Minister in Ciucă government.
Women have held just 12% of the top jobs at 33 of the biggest
multilateral institutions since 1945, and more than a third of those
bodies, including all four large development banks, have never been led
by a woman, a new study released on Monday (6 March) shows. Five of the
bodies have only had a woman president once in their history, and that
includes the current head of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo
Iweala, according to the report prepared by GWL Voices for Change and
Inclusion, an advocacy group made up of 62 current and former senior
women leaders.
Romania has one of the highest youth unemployment rates among the
European Union member states, according to Eurostat data. Romania thus
ranks fourth in the community bloc, with a 22.2% unemployment rate
among young people up to the age of 25, after Spain, Greece and Sweden
and at the same level as Italy. Moreover, Eurostat has indicated that
the consequences of two global crises, namely the financial and
economic crisis of the late 2000s and the more recent crisis generated
by the Covid-19 pandemic, were visible in youth unemployment during the
period 2009-2021.
Minister Marius Budăi stated, during the debate on the simple motion
filed against him, referring to the taxation of part-time contracts at
the level of the minimum wage, that there are over 6,722,000 million
employment contracts, of which 5.7 full-time ones and 1 million
part-time ones. This is a record number in recent history, he added.
The minister also pointed out that taxing part-time contracts at the
minimum wage level, with the exceptions provided for by law, had led to
a record number of full-time employment contracts, and higher revenues
for the state budget, which would allow for higher wages and pensions.