TALKS At the end of the visit he paid to Brussels Romanian Prime
Minister Nicolae Ciuca announced he agreed with the president of the European
Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, that it is possible to replace the 9.4% GDP
cap for pension expenses within Romania’s National Plan of Recovery and Resilience
with another indicator, which takes into account the World Bank survey and with
a financial discipline indicator. At the same time, the Prime Minister also
held talks with the EU commissioner for transports, Romanian Adina Valean,
after he had earlier met the delegation of the Romanian MEPs. Besides his
official agenda, on Wednesday he met Romanian and Belgian business people. The
talks the Romanian official held in Brussels focused on Romania’s accession to
Schengen. Ciuca said that all his interlocutors had underlined the support
Romania enjoys to continue and complete the process of entering Europe’s border-free
area.
MONEY The European Commission on Thursday paid the 2.6 billion
Euros of the first request submitted by Romania as part of the Mechanism of
Resilience and Recovery and the money is already in Romania’s accounts, the
Ministry of Investment and European projects has announced. The sum, made up of
1.8 billion Euros in grants and 0.8 billion in loans, has become available
after Romania has met the 14 required objectives. ’27 October 2022 is a
historic day for Romania, as it’s not only the moment confirming the
appreciation of the consolidated efforts at the governmental level but also the
proof that we have started off on the road of reforms in the fields of sustainable
mobility, curbing carbon-dioxide emissions, education and healthcare’, field
minister Marcel Bolos says.
RATE The unemployment rate in Romania stood at 2.88% in late
September, 0.03 down as compared to the same period last year. According to
data published by the National Agency for Employment, the number of the jobless
is on the rise compared to the previous month; these are mainly people with
ages between 40 and 49 and less than 5% of them boast a university degree.
DAY Orthodox Christians, who are in the majority in
Romania, on Thursday celebrated St Dmitry the New, the protector saint of
Bucharest. The Patriarchal Cathedral has been home to the saint’s relics since
1774. Dmitry the New was a monk born in the 12th century in the
village of Basarbovo, near the Bulgarian city of
Ruse. The legend has it that after his death, the monk appeared in the dream of
a sick young woman indicating the place where she would find his grave and that
if she touched his body she would recover. The villagers dug out the place
indicated in the dream and found the unaltered body of the monk.
PRICES Energy prices are to decline by 11% next year
according to a World Bank projection. The slower pace of world economic growth
and the COVID restrictions in China may lead to a deeper fall, the World Bank
also notes. Energy prices will still be 75% higher than the average of the last
five years. The level of global debt, which exceeds 300 thousand billion
dollars, must be kept in check, or more people will face poverty. The World
Bank head David Malpass told the BBC that supporting and stimulating economies
was the best solution during the pandemic, but that the consequences of those
expenses are beginning to appear in the form of a rise in inflation and
interest rates. Any future support, including helping people cope with energy
bills, must be clearly targeted, he recommended.
(bill)