Financial Press Review, 31 March

‘If we go out of recession, when will we go out crisis?’ the Curierul Naţional asked on the front page.’ According to Premier Boc, today was the last day of recession’, the newspaper wrote. ‘This does not mean that we went out of the financial crisis also’, revealed a financial adviser quoted by the newspaper.

‘The entrepreneurs were also skeptical, stating that nothing changes unless seen in the pocket of the population and firms’, the newspaper noted. ‘So far we’ve taken austerity measures only, not for the economic growth, so how can the economy boost if we did not help it at all?’

The Curierul Naţional recorded in another article ‘that the commercial banks have resumed in February, according to data published yesterday by the NRB, increasing the cost of the new loans for households and firms, increasing the interests both in lei and euro. (...) In these circumstances, the recovery credit will have to wait, thus eliminating the main engine of the Romania’s economic growth, consumption’, the author said.

The Ziarul Financiar commented in an article in a fast-paced growth by a 1 billion per month of the public debt. In this context’, the Ministry of Finance intention to pursue an active management of public debt was estimated by the analysts, the newspaper wrote, especially since ‘the local market has become too small to support the state’s necessity for funding.’

Under the headline ‘ASAR will only pay off its debts from privatization. Meaning at all’, the Curierul Naţional reproduced the opinion of the president of the Senate’s judicial committee, Toni Greblă, considering that ‘the state proposed a trick, a crime. The Authority for State Assets Recovery will have two budgets - one for operating, the other uncertain, for the recovery of the claims.’

The same view was published by the Bursa newspaper. Greblă accused the government of ‘serious interference with the judicial system’, the Curierul Naţional noted, recalling at the end that ‘last year ASAR has not privatized anything, but that it has published dozens of ads for the sale of some assets.’

The Ziarul Financiar wrote that ‘the monthly electricity bill paid by the population will increase by 4.5 percent, starting from Friday, 1 April, following the introduction of a contribution to support the polluting less energy producers.’

It involved ‘high efficiency cogeneration units.’ The newspaper quoted sources from the Ministry of Economy according to whom ‘it did not involve the electricity’s rising price, but an additional cost.’

The same publication assigned an article to ‘the online credit card payment system of taxes and fees.’ ‘Since yesterday the taxpayers in Târgu Mureş and in Bucharest, districts 2 and 6, can pay online their fees, taxes and fines through the national system ghiseul.ro (www.ghiseul.ro), which is managed and operated by the National Centre for Management of Information Society (CNMSI), an institution subordinated to the Ministry of Communications.

The system solved several problems at once, both of the citizens and local governments, bringing an added convenience, safety and rapidity in the payment of taxes. The endless queues at the counters will be pastime’, Valerian Vreme, the Communications Minister, said at a conference. (...) The law provides a maximum fee of 2 percent of the transfer, but no higher than 30 RON. The fee can be paid by City Hall or by the citizen, as decided by the local council.’

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