Radio România Internațional

Tag: competition council

  • Is inflation going to slow down?

    Is inflation going to slow down?

    Natural gas and edible oil have become the most expensive in Romania in the past year, while the only drop has been registered in the prices of air transport services – according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics on the first day of this week. Prices for natural gas rose by almost 50%, for edible oil by more than 28 % and for fuels by more than 25%. Potatoes, one of the staple foods especially for people with low material means, have also become more expensive by more than 22%. The National Institute of Statistics also announced that electricity prices have risen by more than 8%.

    Romanians have also had to pay more for water, sewer, sanitation and postal services. Overall, the annual inflation rate fell to 7.8% in November from 7.9% in October. Eurostat experts pointed out in autumn that Romania was among the countries in the European Union with the highest inflation, the only consolation being, perhaps, that there were another three states holding the position of leaders in that respect. According to the latest inflation report drawn up by the National Bank of Romania, the annual inflation rate is estimated at 7.5% in December and is expected to go down to 5.9% only at the end of next year.

    The current rise in prices is a momentary phenomenon, caused by the fact that inflation fell in the first year of the pandemic, when the economy did not work, and now, when it is restarting, there is a lot of money in the market, according to the President of the Competition Council, Bogdan Chiritoiu. He estimates that natural gas prices, for example, will return to pre-pandemic levels. On the other hand, the reduction in energy prices will not be so big, given the consequences of the transition to green energy.

    Bogdan Chiriţoiu: I see no point in either capping prices in the medium term or surcharging. All it takes is one-off interventions in some markets. I agreed with the energy surcharge, for example. When there is a problem in a particular market and when it comes to aid, that must be targeted at people who are more vulnerable. If we stick to our old system, where we want to take money from everyone and give money to everyone, it’s a very inefficient system, it doesn’t make sense.

    In the meantime, all Romanians feel the prices increases every month. (MI)

  • Competition Council fines insurance companies

    Competition Council fines insurance companies

    Nine insurance companies in Romania were handed a total of 53 million Euros in fines by the Competition Council for steering the market together so as to increase the prices of the mandatory civil liability insurance for car owners. In addition, the National Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies in Romania was given a 35-thousand Euro fine. Competition Council President, Bogdan Chiritoiu, told Radio Romania that the fines were applied for the companies’ activity in the 2012-2016 period.



    Bogdan Chiritoiu: “Given the crisis on the civil liability insurance market, companies worked together to have prices increased. This is illegal and unfair. At present, things are back to normal and under control, prices have stabilized. We have even seen some drops in civil liability insurances for certain categories of vehicles. Apart from our investigation, the Regulatory Authority also got involved and took action more firmly than before, given that the legislation was changed in 2016 and the system improved”.



    Part of the companies that were handed fines said they would appeal the Council’s decision in court. The Financial Supervisory Authority has taken the fines under advisement and has given assurances it will continue to check the need to modify the current legislative framework, to make sure it responds to the needs of the insurance sector. We recall that this summer the Authority carried out unannounced checks and handed warnings in writing to two insurance companies regarding their management of prices for civil liability insurances, forcing them to correct all the irregularities they identified at the time.



    Moreover, the Financial Supervisory Authority also says that the share of revenues from the sale of civil liability insurances continues to rank first at market level and has grown to 1.6 billion Euros in the first nine months of the year, slightly higher than the same period last year. Car insurances account for approximately 73% of the total gross insurance premiums for general insurances and nearly half of the total gross insurance premiums that companies have contracted in the aforementioned period. Additionally, the total value of gross civil liability insurance premiums last year stood at over 897 million Euros, by 29% more than the previous year, against the backdrop of an increase in the average premium.

  • 18 May, 2017 UPDATE

    18 May, 2017 UPDATE

    OECD. Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu said on
    Thursday in Bucharest that Romania’s accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a priority for his cabinet. He
    asked his ministers to convey the message in their foreign actions that Romania
    is interested in becoming a member of this organisation. The prime minister
    said Romania has made constant and accelerated progress in recent years in
    order to assimilate the OECD instruments and has taken part in the organisation’s
    working structures. We are involved in active consultation with and are
    interested in cooperating more closely with the OECD in many key areas, such as
    macroeconomic policies, corporate governance, the liberalisation of capital
    flows and migration, the Prime Minister also said. At present, the OECD has 34
    members, which together account for around 60% of the world economy.




    Cyberattack. The cyberattack against the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest,
    countered last Friday, was a surgical strike targeting specific employees, said
    Anton Rog, the head of the national cyberintelligence centre of the Romanian
    Intelligence Service. He also said that such attacks are usually the act of a
    state agent. Previously, the Romanian Intelligence Service said that, most
    likely, the attempt originated from an entity associated with the cybercrime
    group APT28/ Fancy Bear, connected with previous events of this kind. Also
    according to Rog, the event was different from the WannaCry ransomware attack
    last week, which affected state institutions and private entities from over 150
    countries, including Romania. The Romanian Intelligence Service also said it
    had information about another cyber attack, but no concrete data about its scale
    or whether it affected Romania. IT experts quoted by France Presse said a new
    wide-scale cyber attack, known as Adylkuzz, affected hundreds of thousands of
    computers on Wednesday.




    Award. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis on
    Thursday awarded the Competition Council with the order of the Industrial and
    Commercial Merit in rank of officer to mark the latter’s 20th
    anniversary. The president emphasised the Council’s role in creating conditions
    of fair competition in Romania, so that businesses may act according to clear
    rules. The president also said that the Council has recently completed around
    140 investigations in various economic sectors.






    Senate speaker. The Speaker of the Romanian Senate Calin
    Popescu-Tariceanu has travelled to Poland to attend the summit of Parliament
    speakers from Central and Eastern Europe. On the agenda are issues like
    regional security, cooperation and the development of infrastructure on the
    north-south axis, as well as the role of national parliaments in international
    politics. Tariceanu will give a talk on the importance of observing the fundamental
    values that define a modern society, which Romania adopted when it joined the
    EU in 2007, when he was Prime Minister.




    Committee
    of Ministers.     The Romanian foreign minister Teodor Melescanu is attending the
    Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in Nicosia, Cyprus. According to the
    foreign ministry in Bucharest, the main topic on the agenda of talks is the
    consolidation of democratic security in Europe, with emphasis on the challenges
    posed by racism, xenophobia, social exclusion, extremism and terrorism. The
    Council of Ministers is made up of a representative from each of the 47 Council
    of Europe member states.




    Tennis. World
    no. 4 Simona Halep, Romania’s only tennis player still in competition in Rome,
    on Thursday defeated Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, world no. 17, to reach
    the tournament’s quartefinals. This was the seventh time the two players faced
    each other, with Halep winning all previous matches. She also won the Madrid
    title for the second time in a row. In the men’s doubles in Rome, the
    Romanian-Pakistani pair Florin Mergea and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi lost in
    straight sets on Thursday to the Polish-Brazilian pair Lukasz Kubot and Felipe Melo.