News today

The bank has revised downwards its estimate on the inflation rate this year, from 4.5 pc to 4 pc.
According to the latest BCR estimate, the Romanian economy will grow by 1.9 per cent in 2010, up from an earlier estimate of 0.6 per cent, and the GDP level reported before the recession onset will be reached in 2012 at the earliest, Lucian Anghel, the bank’s chief economist told Mediafax.

‘Although uncertainty level is high, the economy could return to growth in 2010 in the context of a more than moderate resumption of investments in the private sector, a resumption mainly backed by FDI,’ Anghel said in a press conference. At the same time, the population’s consumption could see low growth, mainly because of a good agricultural production and of a powerful base effect.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn seems certain Romania will overcome crisis but not so fast. While greeting Strauss-Kahn at Cotroceni, Traian Basescu admitted he considers signing new stand-by assistance deal, or taking flexible credit line in the future.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) enforces constraint policies to discipline the states that cannot do so themselves. The IMF was and is for real, and it continues to support states like Romania or Hungary. The Fund focuses on fighting the crisis, though in the past it wished to save the world.

The premier on Saturday called upon MPs to urgently discuss draft laws tabled by executive. Heads of county directorates who delay salary payments to be dismissed.
The government sticks to its decision to increase teachers’ salaries by only 17 per cent under the applicable legislation and to schedule the payment of additional remuneration won in court for later on, as the executive cannot afford renouncing economic stability, PM Emil Boc said, quoted by Mediafax. Boc added that results of future economic growth would be reflected in people’s income but “obviously not today.” Boc also said pay inconsistencies were being caused by both court judgments granting education employees a 50 per cent rise (according to a law passed by Parliament in the autumn of 2008, although the government only accepted to give teachers 17 per cent pay rise in 2008 and has already abrogated the 33 per cent difference by normative acts), and by including bonuses unrecognised by current legislation into collective bargaining agreements.

PSD leader Victor Ponta attacked the education minister and urged him to resign: “Funeriu is plainly incapable of managing Education reform.” Liberals too will file Wednesday a regular motion against the minister.
Attending the debate on the new Education Law yesterday at Parliament Palace, President Traian Basescu said this moment of crisis is favourable to changes, because “education is key to improving Romanians’ living standards” and only with competent people can we prevent entering another crisis.” (...) No change was made in the education system and everything that’s been done so far was patching up the education system. If there is anybody who claims to be the reformer of the system in the last 20 years since the Revolution, I want to invite that person to look at the results,” Basescu said, quoted by Mediafax. During debates, President Basescu added Romania has one of the weakest education systems in Europe and the weakest in the European Union. He said provisions of the new draft law on education do not touch school autonomy, while making it clear that autonomy of interest groups within universities cannot be accepted.

Social Democrats plan to challenge vote with the Constitutional Court.

Parliament’s joint chambers yesterday rejected the public television company’s 2008 activity report, with 195 votes against the document, 78 in favour and three abstentions, Agerpres reported. The move leads to the immediate removal of the state-run television’s Administrative Council and its general director, Alexandru Sassu. MPs also rejected a Social Democrat deputy’s proposal that the current TVR management board’s term be extended until a new leadership is named. The head of the Chamber of Deputies’ culture committee, Democrat Liberal Raluca Turcan, insisted there was no need for a special Parliament vote on the matter, since current legislation allows the board to go on as caretaker for 15 days until its successor is appointed.

The World Bank Country Director, Central European and Baltic Countries Peter Harrold, reaffirmed the institution’s support for Romania’s reform agenda and expressed optimism with the process outcome, after a visit to our country. “This is about how the Government can deliver better services to the population,” said Harrold. “It is critically important to continue with structural reforms in order to ensure fiscal sustainability and economic growth in Romania”, he said in a press release. The Romanian counterparts agreed the World Bank partnership with Romania must be continued and discussed the scope for collaboration in a number of areas in the coming years. These priority areas will be determined by the World Bank in close cooperation with the Government and other partners, notably the EU, and might include administrative reforms and monitoring of sector policies, social sector reforms for inclusive growth, and support for the key agricultural sector. Involvement in other pillars mentioned by the national reform plan and by the EU 2020 strategy (for example knowledge economy, or regional development) will also be considered, Peter Harrold said. These are areas where the World Bank has significant experience and accumulated knowledge. An increased engagement of the Bank with regional and local governments and a gradual phasing-in of World Bank fee based services for the Romanian Government, particularly in relation to increasing Romania’s capacity of absorbing EU funds, were also envisaged. The World Bank has provided support to Romania in the context of the financial crisis, as part of a package of support from the IMF, EU and the Bank. The first Development Policy Loan (DPL) for Euro 300 MLN, which is part of a series of three totaling Euro 1 bln, was disbursed on October 2009.

Asesoft International will provide the Romanian Gendarmerie with an e-learning platform deployed to the 62 units of the institutions situated in a total of 53 areas. The value of the contract awarded on March 15 is RON 19.12 mln including VAT, Mediafax informs. Only one other bidder participated, apart from Asesoft International. The new project is for the development of training courses consisting of a total of 690 four-hour training sessions broken down into seven different specializations on five levels of difficulty, addressing specific themes such as induction, career development (change of specialisation, specialisation, improvement, promotion in rank), foreign languages and other lines of training (psychology, project management). The programme will be financed through the European Regional Development Fund.

National Bank (BNR) governor’s advisor Adrian Vasilescu believes RON appreciation on Tuesday is a good sign but it is only a fortunate occurrence, not a trend. Vasilescu said one of the reasons why RON showed such a consistent appreciation is that one of the foreign-capital banks in Romania received money from its mother-bank, Realitatea.net reports.

The BNR advisor explained that the said money was exchanged from EUR so a considerable sum entered the foreign exchange market. Nevertheless, analysts believe the RON could see further appreciation in the upcoming period because of remittances sent by Romanians working abroad. “Last year analysts were saying that the EUR will reach a level of RON 4.75. This year the same analysts took the RON’s side,” Vasilescu said. The reference exchange rate posted by the National Bank yesterday – RON 4.0716/EUR – represents a new minimum after January 2009.

Romania’s mid term economic growth hindered by ageing population. According to the European Commission, Romania’s budget deficit this year could exceed the target adopted by the Government because some expenditure reduction measures could be difficult to implement from a social and political point of view. EC also notes that the Convergence Program does not contain sufficient measures for 2011 and 2012, Mediafax informs. ‘In 2010 the deficit could be more unfavorable than the one projected by the program, considering that some of the measures meant to reduce expenditures, such as public sector layoffs, are difficult to implement from a social and political point of view,’ a document published yesterday and containing the European Commission’s (EC) comments on Romania’s Convergence Program for 2009-2012 points out.

The privatization of energy distribution systems in Turkey is seeing radical changes, putting the focus on the satisfaction of millions of consumers of electricity and natural gas throughout Turkey while also lowering prices in the long run, Hasan Köktaş, president of the Energy Market Regulatory Agency (EPDK), has said.

In an interview with Today’s Zaman, Köktaş noted that the EPDK is still keeping watch over energy distribution companies even though many of them have been privatized. He stated that distribution firms are kept under close scrutiny so consumers do not become victims when the companies’ services go awry.