Business & macroeconomy
Foreign investments down again in first quarter in Romania
Foreign investments stood at EUR 425 million in the first quarter of the year in Romania, covering 78.1 percent of the current account deficit. Investments were down EUR 19 million on the first quarter of 2011, which saw an external investment of EUR 444 million. Romania’s current account deficit from January to March this year [...]
Graells & Llonch starts second industrial park in Romania with EUR 200 mln
Spanish real estate developer Graells & Llonch started work on its second real estate project in Romania, a EUR 200 million park in Turda city, Cluj county. The park will cover 545,000 sqm and will include areas for various production companies, as well as logistics space for distribution and logistics companies. In total, the park [...]
Romanian PM: Country is stable, EUR 1 billion from World Bank for unpredictable situations
Romania’s situation is stable and the country will soon approve a EUR 1 billion credit line from the World Bank, said the country’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta (in picture) on Tuesday evening. He mentioned the local currency’s fluctuation, saying it was fluctuating less than other currencies in the region, and that the Romanian Central Bank [...]
UPC Romania announces slight growth in customers in Q1 2012
Digital TV, internet and fixed line telephone operator UPC Romania has recorded at least some growth across all its areas of activity in the first quarter of 2012. UPC’s total number of revenue generating units (RGU), or subscriptions in other words, increased to 1.6 million by the end of March this year. Across UPC’s different [...]
Real estate investments almost triple quarter-on-quarter in Romania
Almost EUR 100 million was invested in Romanian real estate during the first quarter of 2012 , according to DTZ Echinoz real estate agency. This was an almost three-fold increase compared to the last quarter of 2011. However, it was a 50 percent decrease on the same period in 2011. The first three months of [...]
Romania goes back to technical recession after 0.1% GDP drop in first quarter
Romania’s economy was down 0.1 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the previous, and thus returned to recession, as this is the second consecutive quarter of GDP decline for the country. The contraction this time was lower. In the last quarter of 2011, Romania’s economy dropped by 0.2 to 0.3 percent. [...]
Romanian capital’s Otopeni airport shows one of EU’s highest rates of growth
Although Bucharest’s main airport, Otopeni, is only the 58th busiest passenger airport in the European Union (EU), it saw the third largest increase in passengers – a 9.7 percent rise from 2009 to 2010, according to data from Eurostat. A total 4.9 million passengers traveled via the airport in 2010, of which 601,000 were Romanian [...]
Bloomberg study: Petrol in Romania fairly cheap, but low wages mean high ‘pain at pump’
A Bloomberg study on petrol prices in 55 countries places Romania among the cheapest, in 34th place, but rates the ‘pain at the pump,’ or percentage of average wage needed to fill up, among the highest. Of the EU countries in the study, Romania’s USD 6.59 per gallon ( about 4 liters) was the cheapest [...]
Gabriel Resources wants to cut costs in Romania until new Govt. starts licensing process
Gabriel Resources, the private investor behind the Rosia Montana gold mining project in Romania, wants to reduce costs until the Romanian Government advances with the licensing process for the project, said the Canadian Company. Gabriel Resources posted a loss of USD 2.6 million in the first quarter of 2012, twice as much as in the [...]
German STEAG buys wind farm from Romanian Monsson, plans EUR 200 mln investments
German electricity producer STEAG recently acquired the 108 MW Crucea North Wind Farm Project in Constanta County, Romania, from local private wind energy developer Monsson Group. STEAG will invest around EUR 200 million in this wind farm, which will have 36 wind turbines of 3MW. “STEAG has been active in Romania for ten years as [...]
Rompetrol losses increase after first quarter in Romania
Rompetrol Rafinare, part of the Rompetrol group, reported a turnover of USD 1.1 billion in the first quarter of this year, a 2 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2011. The company ended the first quarter on loss, with a net loss of USD 62.7 million, 5.5 times higher than in the first [...]
Romania’s Translecetrica ups turnover but lowers profit during first quarter
Translectrica, Romania’s national electricity carrier posted a turnover of EUR 203 million and a profit of EUR 10 million in the first quarter of this year. While its turnover was 18 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2011, the profit was 3.7 times lower than during the same period last year. The company’s [...]
Romanian gas transporter Transgaz posts flat turnover, lower profit in wake of secondary listing
Romania gas company Transgaz ended the first quarter of the year with a turnover almost flat compared to the first three months of 2011 – some EUR 104.6 million. Its net profit was of almost EUR 40 million, down 11 percent on the same period in 2011. The country’s natural gas transporter is controlled by [...]
Owner of Mica Elvetie- Saint Moritz plans second restaurant in Bucharest
Jakob Hausmann, the owner and chef at the Mica Elvetie restaurant in Bucharest wants to open a second restaurant in the Romanian capital, somewhere downtown. The new restaurant will target a younger audience and the menu will change seasonally, to use fresh ingredients with the right price, said Hausmann. Mica Elvetie was opened in 1998 [...]
Black market labor up in Romania, 2.3 mln people working without labor contract
There are more than 2.3 million people working unofficially for cash in hand, or working ‘black’ in Romania, up around 900,000 compared to 2008, representing more than a third of working people in Romania, according to the country’s Fiscal Council. Evasion on social contributions, VAT and income tax stood at 10.3 percent of the country’s [...]
Ford starts EcoBoost engine production in Romania
Carmaker Ford has started the production of the EcoBoost engine at its factory in Craiova, Romania this week. The company wants to manufacture 800,000 such engines at its factories in Romania and Germany between 2012 and 2015. The production of cars equipped with this engine will also triple, as the engine is more powerful and [...]
Romania’s Government promises differentiated tax and VAT from 2013, in wake of fall elections
Romania might move a step away from flat tax next year, if the current Government’s proposal to impose differentiated tax levels for personal revenues becomes reality. If the Social Liberal Union (USL) wins the elections in Romania this fall, it plans to introduce differentiated taxation, of 8, 12 and 16 percent for the revenues made [...]
April inflation sets new low in Romania, increase in egg prices counterbalanced by cheap potatoes
Romania’s inflation rate was of only 0.07 percent in April this year, below expectations, while the annual inflation rate stood at 1.8 percent, a new historic minimum for the country. Food prices were down 0.1 percent in April compared to the previous month, while the prices of non-food products and services were up 0.2 percent. [...]
UniCredit Tiriac Bank’s profit down 26% in first quarter in Romania
Romanian lender UniCredit Tiriac Bank made a EUR 6 million net profit in the first quarter of the year, down 26.6 percent on the same period of 2011. “The results in the first three months of the year registered a good evolution, despite the slowdown of the economic activity in Romania. […] We focused more [...]
La cuenta, por favor! Europa League final brings EUR 10 million to Romanian tourism
The UEFA Europa League final in Bucharest on Wednesday evening ( May 9 ) brought the highest number of foreign tourists ever to the Romanian capital, some 25,000, who spent around EUR 10 million in the city, according to the Association of Tourism Employers in Romania. Around 10,000 Spanish guests, supporters of the two teams [...]
S Immo to put EUR 66 mln into The Mark – Bucharest office building with intelligent facade
Austrian investment fund S Immo will develop a 28,000 sqm office building in Bucharest under the name ‘The Mark’, with a budget of EUR 66 million. The Mark will be located at the crossroads between the future Uranus boulevard and Calea Grivitei, close to the office hotspot Victoriei Square. The project will include a 15-floor [...]
Latest IMF mission to Romania: targets met but pace of reform and privatization must quicken
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has concluded its latest mission the Romania and despite witnessing the dramatic collapse of the country’s shortest lived government, the IMF’s monitors have given a general thumbs up to Romanian compliance. All the stand by agreement criteria and economic targets were met, with the exception of central government arrears, which [...]
IMF: Focus on six state companies after privatizations stumble
The privatization timetable slipped and some auctions failed because they were not well prepared, said International Monetary Fund (IMF) Romanian mission chief Jeffrey Franks during his last visit. As a result, the IMF is now focusing on six companies- Hidroelectrica, Nuclearelectrica, Romgaz, Transgaz and public offers at Tarom and CFR Marfa, . “We tried to [...]
IMF mission chief: Feeling sorry for having failed in Romania’s privatizations, private CEOs program
At his last mission in Romania Jeffrey Franks (in picture, right), the mission chief for the country within the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said he ended his mandate knowing he has achieved progress but also feeling sorry for having failed in some areas, like privatizations and naming private managers for state companies. He held his last [...]
Bulgaria seeks public – private funding for highway connecting Romanian border to Turkey
The Bulgarian government plans to build a highway that will connect the border between Romania and Bulgaria- from Ruse to Turkey as a public – private partnership project, according to the Bulgarian Minister of Regional Development Liliana Pavlova. She said that the investment required for the 300-kilometer highway will be between EUR 500 million and [...]
Romania strikes gold, silver and bronze at European Gymnastics Championship, wins title after four years 
‘Magic mentalist’ wins ‘Romania’s got talent’ competition after flat-lining during live show 
Three trams collide, derail in Bucharest accident, at least 86 injured 
‘The Avengers’ epic movie almost covers production costs with first week-end box office revenues 
Athletic Bilbao files official complaint over Bucharest airport delays after Europa League final 
Wajiha Haris, Scheherazade Foundation president: “No” is never an option 
Romania’s Education Minister accused of having plagiarized three international research papers 
German STEAG buys wind farm from Romanian Monsson, plans EUR 200 mln investments 
Romanian actor Serban Ionescu left bed bound after catching Lyme’s disease from tick bite 
S Immo to put EUR 66 mln into The Mark – Bucharest office building with intelligent facade
