Financial Press Review, 29 July

Below the headline "Best cereal crop since 2004", the Ziarul Financiar writes that "agriculture has started to become a lucrative business in Romania, last year prices exploded on the global market".

The number of subsistence farms has plummeted to 700 000 in the past eight years, the daily reads.

The Romanian agriculture is in trouble, because farmers are too old to work their own land, but they do not want to sell it.

There is no such thing as a peasant family.

Before 1989 young people moved to the city, and recently others have moved abroad.

Exports have increased in recent years, but it will be another eight years before Romania becomes a net produce exporter.

"Agriculture had luck with weather", the Curierul Naţional summarizes the conclusions of a EC study.

The Ziarul Financiar reads that "Public debt gained another 20 billion euro in two years of meltdown.

A way to reduce it to a reasonable level would be economy growth and lower budget deficit.

For the second quarter analysts are anticipating a deceleration in growth.

"Without economic measures, we will run out of means for economy growth", the Bursa quotes Cristian Pârvan, Secretary at the Association of Businessmen in Romania.

"The economy is doing what it can on its own. It’s been two years since we need such a scheme and still nothing has been done", he says.

Cristian Pârvan believes "the progress the public procurement sector has made is encouraging".

The Ziarul Financiar also writes that "labour market is sending out optimistic signals, after two years of continuous fall, it increased in the half-year.

Recruitment sites are full of full of job offers and state salaries in certain fields are 10 percent bigger than they were last year".

Below the headline "Wiring up households to electric network – 211 million euro", the Curierul Naţional reads that "60 584 rural households in 2100 villages lack electricity".

96 of them are completely unelectrified.

Most of them are in Harghita, Alba and Caraş-Severin Counties.

"Electrica PLC cannot afford social work under these conditions", its representative says.

"Cost amortization could take tens, even hundreds of years".

PM Boc said that by 2012 all households will be wired up to the electricity system, the Curierul Naţional writes.

Translated by: Gabriela Lungu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University