Financial Press Review, 23 March

The Ziarul Financiar opens with an article entitled ‘Isărescu gives a bonus of 8 million euros a month for those with foreign currency loans.’

The rising value of the leu towards the euro by over 3 percent from the beginning of the year to a progress of 4.14 lei per euro, induced by the National Bank led by governor Mugur Isărescu in oder to temper the price rises for the imported products, giving them a breath of oxygen also to those who have paid their rates on foreign currency loans, as the total effort is now lower by about 8 million in a single month’, according to the calculations of the Ziarul Financiar.

‘This money was left in addition to the other costs and good news for the retailers.’

‘Analysts said the NBR’s bet to temper the currency inflation is likely to work, but now everything depends on how quickly the retailers will reposition themselves towards the prices’, the article revealed.

The Curierul Naţional’s front page has the headline ‘Let them be printed, but let us know it too!’ where we read that ‘Romania remained the country with the highest inflation in Europe, and the rises of the past half year have hit the living standards of most people who also had to endure the nominal income adjustments.’

The amount of currency money has increased by 10.8 percent last year. The newspaper published the opinion of the financial analyst Călin Rekem that ‘the NBR switched to direct printing of the money, in an attempt to monetize the shock of the increase in the VAT.

Councilor Adrian Vasilescu said that the emergence of the leu on the market has occurred only in the foreign currency account that has entered the country or in the exchanged one by the Ministry of Finance.

The increase in the currency is of seasonal nature and it can not influence the price dynamics’, the NBR governor added.

‘The government proposed banks to share risks of “First house” Programme’, the Bursa headlined.

‘The state guarantees for the loans allocated through the “First house” Programme could be also borne by the banks providing the loans, as Prime Minister Boc has resumed the idea that this could double the total ceiling of guarantees and hence the number of beneficiaries’, the Curierul Naţional wrote.

The Bursa published an article entitled ‘Disruption of cinema network.’ The transfer of the cinemas from the RegiaRomânia Film’s administration in the management of local administrations has proved to be a bad movie’, the newspaper wrote.

‘The process, which has been initiated by the Government for ‘the rehabilitation of cultural life ‘and has been adopted by Parliament in late 2008, had a level of success of only 30 percent. Of the 317 cinema halls and gardens managed by the RomâniaFilm, only 97 have been taken so far, by the local administrations, according to the Ministry of Culture’s report, delivered at the request of the editor. (...)

Of the 97 halls which had been handed over, only one has been rehabilitated, currently in use, the hall in Slatina. The rest is silence’, the Bursa wrote.

First reason: ‘The local administrative units do not have the necessary funds to support the functioning of the halls and gardens’, the Culture Ministry officials said. ’It is interesting that the issue seems to have been ignored from the start by the central authorities, while in the law it was specified that the draft bill has no budgetary implications’, the Bursa wrote.


Translated by Iulia Florescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University