Financial Press Review, 24 March 2011

The further decline of the private credit, the reliability of the nuclear power plant from Cernavoda and the unfriendly legislation regarding the capitalization of the renewable energy are the current topics of today’s financial newspapers.

‘Fear takes money to bank’, the Ziarul financiar headlined.

‘Romanians have increased their bank deposits by 1 billion lei only in February, which indicated that they further prefer to postpone their procurement plans to savings.’

Explanation: the fears of lower incomes or even job losses.

However, ‘the percentage of Romanians who never save money has rose from 69 percent in 2009 to 77 percent last year, showing that the crisis has actually increased’, the Curierul Naţional wrote, quoting a study by the RCB.

The Ziarul Financiar wrote that ‘the month of February has brought an unpleasant surprise, as the private credit continued to fall.’

‘The promotions and the bankers’ optimism have not yet managed to raise the credit’s demand’, the newspaper headlined.

‘The main factor of this development is the lack of solvent demand.’

And yet, the same paper noted in another article, that ‘the financial bank analysts began to see the economy from a better point of view and they expected the credit rating agencies to give higher grades to Romania.

‘The industry has continued to increase, slightly positive signs have emerged in the construction field, but consumption remains the main problem.’

The Ziarul Financiar noted on the front page that ‘the progress of the report on the new employees and quitters show that the economy is out of recession.’

The Curierul Naţional headlined ‘Spring defrosted employment’, pointing out at the same time that, according to the Ministry of Labor, in our country ‘about a million people work illegally’.

The same newspaper reported in another article that ‘the number of Romanians seeking employment abroad rose again since the year’s start’.

‘On the other hand, many professional recruiters have also doubled their job offers’, the newspaper wrote.

‘How did green energy fade’ was the big headline on the front page of the Curierul Naţional. ‘Romania could be a real El Dorado of wind power.’

However, the newspaper noted that ‘the investors now, especially the foreign ones, because of their capital to develop such projects, accused the unfriendly and unpredictable legislation, a reason for which those wishing to start a business refrained.’

‘We risk 5 billion euros investments in wind power’, the Bursa headlined.

‘Cernavoda plant more secure than Fukushima’, the Ziarul Financiar headlined

The heads of the nuclear power plant, which provided about 20 percent of the national energy production, said that the industry will become more secure after the natural disasters in Japan and the effects they had on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The Curierul Naţional dedicated an article to the same subject entitled ‘Will stress tests raise electricity produced by Nuclearelectrica?’

The article also provided an answer: ‘The increase in energy prices is uncertain given that nuclear fuel prices fell after the events of Fukushima.’

The Ziarul Financiar recorded that ‘the Leu won yesterday another 1.8 against the European currency and the central bank posted an official rate of 4.1260 lei per euro, its lowest level since April 2010.’

Translated by: Iulia Florescu,
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University