Financial Press Review, January 13

The Ziarul Financiar reveals that industrial production brought both a pleasant surprise by its development registered at the end of the year and a bad news regarding the growth of consumption prices which got to eight percent/ 8 percent, a value almost double from the 2009 one, in terms of the boost of VTA to twenty four percent/ 24 percent, registered in July, last year. The Bursa headlines that the target regarding the inflation was missed four consecutive years.

The Curierul Naţional publishes an article entitled ‘Which were, in 2010, the inflationist engines?’ The publication expresses the hope that ‘once with the decrease of inflation, key-interest rates shall drop, too’.

The Ziarul Financiar records that according to the Governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isărescu, ‘the main purpose of 2011 is slowing down the inflation rate’. The same daily writes: ‘IMF: Romania’s foreign debt boosts up to eighty two percent/82 percent of the GDP’. The article writes down that the Fund does not fear about recovering the loan as it bets not only on the economic growth recovering which will allow cutting down on debts in order to be manageable but also on the ‘Romania’s smooth past in the honor of the foreign debts’.

Under the title ‘the reason for which the economic meltdown prolonged’, the Ziarul Financiar quotes the opinion of the chief economist of the National Bank of Romania, Valentin Lazea, who considers ‘the bad quality of foreign investments that Romania attracted during the economic boost period’ a cause and as a consequence ‘the policies promoted by the authorities attracted less investments for production and exports and more speculative investments.’ The article concludes: ‘Fundamentally, in 2011, Romania will be the way we know to make it, neither better nor worse’.

The Curierul Naţional works out on a seemingly paradox: ‘the economic crisis has toughly stricken the Romanian labour market which for the last couple of years has been facing a great number of layoffs not only in the private sector but also in the public one’. Though, in December, national unemployment rate was lower than that in the previous month and than in December, 2009. According to the daily, one can look for an explanation in the calculation methodology. The same daily publishes and article entitled ‘the effects of the meltdown on the labour market: four times more Romanians are looking for a job’. ‘Day after day, in the early 2011, financial sites registered new traffic records.’ ‘Women are the most active applicants’ and the number of applicants who send abroad CVs/resumes for a job has doubled since January 2010.’

The Bursa publishes an article entitled ‘for famous people, justice is the stepping stone to the tranquility inside hospitals’. ‘For the business world’s big names and for the politics in Dâmboviţa, police custody and courts have become a stepping stone to the ‘immaculate’ bedding of our hospitals excepting Omar Hayssam who proved to fit for running. (…) It is difficult to believe that stress is the only reason of so many health problems of people who, according to their job description, were used with an independent life like that inspired by action movies’. There is a long list. The article limits only to ‘the cases that have kept the headline for the last time.’

The Ziarul Financiar opens its edition with an article entitled: ‘Foreign investors queue for the Property Fund (is a joint stock company established by the Romanian state, but which is intended to become entirely private and independent from the state. Its specificity lies in the fact that its purpose and its operations are governed by special legislation.

Shareholders must be owners dispossessed by the Romanian state during the Communist Romania. ‘The tensions created by the Property Fund heated Romania in full winter and the tens of millions of euro that were being expected to enter once with the launch on the Bucharest stock market determined many of the shareholders to already dream about being millionaires. Beginning with January 25, when listing will begin, foreign investors will have access to the most valuable Romanian Company with 3.5 billion euro assets and shares to the most important local energy companies.’


Translated by: Cristina Anamaria Maricescu
MA student, MTTLC, Bucharest University