Financial Press Review, January 7

The Ziarul Financiar reads on the first page: businessmen estimate that ‘there are the economy shows good signs, that it is headed in a good direction, but with the hand brake on.’ They estimate that the economy will recover in 2011. The same daily presents a similar estimation from the Fitch rating agency, which ‘foresees a 2 percent economic growth for 2011, but warns that there are still high political risks.’

Among the measures the state has to take, businessmen mention decreasing the VAT on food, which could reduce the black economy. ‘Fondul Proprietatea, which was set up by the Romanian Government in 2005 to indemnify persons whose assets were abusively expropriated by the communist regime, is to be listed on 25th January.

That could have a positive impact on the evolution of the economy, since it will once again draw the attention of foreign investors.’ ‘The most important listing in the history of the Bucharest Stock Exchange’ has been expected to happen for many years ‘marked by promises and unkept promises of the many local leaderships,’ the daily reads.

Under the headline ‘A controversial figure – the new agreement with the IMF’, the daily Bursa reads that ‘our country will receive a new line of credit worth a few billion euro, which it will use in case the economy takes a bad turn (…) The technical parameters of the new agreement are yet to be made public, which is why various versions of it have appeared.’

According to the ‘trustworthy sources close to the negotiations’ that the daily refers to, ‘authorities would like the future loan to be divided on a longer period of time, since our country already has 20 billion euro to pay from the current stand-by arrangement.’

The editorial in the Ziarul Financiar entitled ‘Cards on the table’ points out that authorities are still wasting public money. ‘Just like before 1989, we say something at seminars and on TV and something else in the backstage of politics.’

‘We keep talking of modernization, but you see them scheming contracts, raising the minimum value for public auctions and it becomes clear that the system is built to be hacked. It is organized theft that starts at the top. (…) This is the problem – there is continuous waste. (…) Unfortunately, accession to the EU will not transform our economy or society, like many thought.

And not even joining the euro zone will. These are fake targets, dream wrappers,’ the editorialist concludes.
The Curierul Naţional open its first page with an article entitled ‘Brace yourselves for superinspectors!’ ‘Inspectors will cash in monthly a bonus of up to 30 percent of the salary and 1 percent of the recovered tort.’

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