ECONOMY
Romania reports a record-high GDP increase for last year, from EUR 240 bln in 2021 to nearly
EUR 290 bln, according to the National Strategy and
Forecast Commission. For this year, however, the institution estimates a
slow-down of the economic growth from 4.9% in 2022 to 2.8%. The inflation rate
is also expected to drop significantly by the end of this year, from 16.4% in
2022 to 8%, and consumption growth is also predicted to drop to 2.4%, compared
to 4.6% last year. The figures in the winter forecast, made public on Thursday,
are not different from the ones in the autumn report, released in October.
HEALTHCARE The number of respiratory infections in Romania dropped last
week by almost one-quarter compared to the previous week, to 103,000 cases, the
National Public Health Institute announced. The number is nonetheless 21%
higher than the average weekly rate in 2015-2020. According to statistics,
nearly 5,000 of them were flu cases. Since the start of the cold season, 36
people died from the flu, and nearly 1.5 million people got anti-flu vaccines.
DIPLOMACY The Romanian
foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu had a bilateral meeting in Sibiu today with his
Dutch counterpart, Wopke Bastiaan Hoekstra. The talks focused on Romania’s
Schengen accession and the ongoing efforts to further this important goal. Bogdan Aurescu reiterated that Romania’s accession will help strengthen
the security of the EU as a whole and will give credibility to the Union. In
turn, ministrer Hoekstra reiterated the Netherlands’ active support for this
process. Wopke Hoekstra also reconfirmed the Netherlands’ commitment to
consolidating NATO’s deterrence and defence posture on the
eastern flank, in the context of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, by
contributing troops to the NATO Battle Group in Romania. The 2 officials also
discussed the Romanian-Dutch bilateral relations. The meeting took place in the
context of the Dutch official’s visit to Romania for trilateral political
consultations in Bucharest, together with the French diplomacy chief Catherine
Colonna. Ahead of the talks, the 3 ministers made a joint visit to the French
and Dutch troops stationed at the Cincu military base as part of the NATO Battle
Group in Romania. In
Bucharest, Catherine Colonna will be received by president Klaus Iohannis and
PM Nicolae Ciucă.
COMMEMORATION
The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or the International Day in Memory
of the Victims of the Holocaust, is marked every year on January 27, under a
resolution endorsed by the United Nations in 2005. In 1945, on January 27, Allied forces liberated
the largest Nazi extermination camp, in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland. According
to historians, the Holocaust resulted in the killing of 6 million Jewish people
in Europe and millions of other ethnics by Germany’s Nazi regime. Events and activities are organised on
this day every year at the UN headquarters in New York and UN offices around the world.
This year’s theme is Home and Belonging. In 2022, the UN General Assembly
adopted a resolution tabled by Israel, calling on all countries to condemn Holocaust
denial and anti-Semitism, especially on social networks.
TENNIS Gabriela Ruse (Romania) / Marta
Kostiuk (Ukraine) today lost to the defending champions, Barbora Krejcikova and
Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) 6-2, 6-2, in the doubles semi-finals of the
Australian Open. This is the best performance for Ruse and Kostiuk in a Grand Slam
event. Krejcikova and Siniakova hold a combined 6 Grand Slam doubles titles, 3
of them last year alone, when they only missed the Roland Garros. In the final,
the Czech players take on Shuko Aoyama/Ena Shibahara, of Japan, at their first
presence in a Grand Slam final after defeating Coco Gauff/Jessica Pegula (US). (AMP)
